Advertisement placed by the Italian, family-owned clothing company, Benetton, c. 1993. This and other ads of Benetton were censored in Europe.

Notice there are two levels of text: the embodied tattoo, which some thought alluded to the death camps; and the superimposed Benetton logo, which seemed to equate commercial messages with governmental health campaigns.

From Figure 18, Tuija Niskanen, “More than sweaters and shocking pictures: On the corporate philosophy and communicaitons strategy of Benetton,” in Inkinen, Sam (Ed.), Mediapolis: Aspects of texts, hypertexts and multimedial communication; Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter (1999), pp. 358-381. For a performative discourse analysis of HIV tattoos, which aren't just a figment of the advertising mind, see Dan Brouwer, "The precarious visibility of politics of self-stigmatization: The case of HIV/AIDS tattoos," Text and Performance Quarterly 18.2 (1998),114-136.

RH, July 2003