Press Releases and Statements
UNHATE worldwide campaign
With its new worldwide communication campaign United Colors of Benetton invites the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the “culture of hatred” and creates the UNHATE Foundation

The UNHATE communication project includes a series of coordinated initiatives and events, starting on 16 November in the main newspapers, periodicals and websites around the world. The central theme is the kiss, the most universal symbol of love, between world political and religious leaders, such as: Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao; Pope Benedict XVI and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo (the most important and moderate centre for Sunni Islamic studies in the world); the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These are symbolic images of reconciliation – with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation – to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation.
The new campaign, the creation of the Foundation and the other initiatives of the UNHATE project reflect Benetton’s wish to drive the desire for participation and change that animates the world’s citizens, and especially the young, inviting them to play an active, central role in its initiatives, particularly through the internet, social media and other digital applications. This marks a further step forward in Benetton’s communications, which elicit intervention and action from everybody, in the name of an “expanded”, open democracy, without physical, political, social or ideological boundaries.
1Quote from the Sutta Pitaka. The Basket of Suttas, Sutta Pitaka, contains over 10,000 suttas (teachings) of the Buddha or in some cases, his most authoritative disciples.