OLIVIERO TOSCANI

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

Italy’s master image-maker, Oliviero Toscani, explains why he’s founded an “ethical workshop”

Text by Francesca Lombardo

Image masters: Oliviero Toscani in front of a print of
Andy Warhol, the icon who inspired him

the controversial ad
campaign No Anorexia for
Nolita (2007)Surly, irreverent, provocative, analytical, and sharp: he does not see himself as a photographer but as an artist, and above all, one who doesn’t mince his words. We’re talking about Oliviero Toscani, a master of communication, whose 40-year career is gilded with prestigious awards and worldwide recognition.

The secret to his success? Ensuring that the customer adapts to his vision rather than the other way round. “It’s a true privilege,” he states, “given that 95% of communication companies are gagged by the geographical, cultural and social limitations in which they work.”

La Sterpaia’s
manifestoToscani first found fame in 1982, when he took on the Benetton advertising account. Binning the traditional glossy pictures of models and clothes, Toscani instead chose images that celebrated inter-racial love, condemned warfare, the death penalty, and superficial religious worship, and also highlighted the effects of anorexia. Most commentators saw this as an ingenious and bold campaign, while others viewed it as a way to exploit political issues for commercial ends. La Sterpaia, a research lab founded by Toscani in collaboration with the Tuscan regional government, located in the San Rossore park in Pisa, serves as a suitable riposte to his detractors.

What is La Sterpaia?
It is an ethical workshop where cultural innovation takes place, but also a meeting point between creativity and entrepreneurial skills within culture and industry. The idea that art is detached from the world and stops with the individual is an old concept – art should be applied to the masses.

Worldwide Benetton
campaign against the
American death penalty
(2000)How do you work at La Sterpaia?
Like old craftsmen. We have messages or contents, which interest us and then we find a customer who likes our idea. We don’t conduct market surveys.

Has the success of your way of working been dependent on your fame and credibility?
No, it’s a process that anyone can use. All you need is to have faith in your ideas, know how to propose them, and be creative and smart.

Women in bandages for
Elle France in 2007What exactly do you create?
We communicate content which later materialises into projects: an advertising campaign for a company, a book, a CD, a film, a piece of design work, an exhibition, a television programme. What’s important is the originality of the concept and working on the human brand.

What do you mean by “human brand”?
We reject outdated models of modern marketing based on market and economic principles which do not respect and which insult the human condition. We are attempting to produce an intelligent form of communication, one which is not subjected to power but which is based on originality, not on uniformity, but rather on the courage to express one’s own ideas without fear. I have always worked like this, testimonials with billionaires or the rich and famous are of no interest to me. These are empty images, simply illusions. Real life does not work like that. I reject the way the human brand is conceived as celebrities who sign products like an assembly line – it is complete nothingness.

‘The promotional
poster for the movie
Amen by Costa-Gavras
(2002)Could one say that you have revolutionised the principles of advertising campaigns by introducing social issues?
Even an advertisement which just mirrors reality in a fake and perverted way, something that I consider a pure emptiness, is a social message in its own way. Everything is a social message. I have not revolutionised the rules of advertising. I have simply done an experiment, creating alternative messages in the world of communication. Yet the aim behind my ideas is to bring in money for my client. Benetton, for which I have done numerous advertising campaigns, and which has become famous worldwide and very rich.

So art cannot be separated from commercial considerations?
The first rule is to enrich the customer. What changes is that you are able to enrich them in a non-trivial manner. I enrich you but in return you let me work how I want.

You mentioned that images of war or death in the news or newscasts are not surprising, while within advertising it’s shocking. Why is that?
Newspapers are simply the right format for that; whereas advertising, which historically should make you dream, can shock if it suggests something different. A newspaper is just a product just like any other with the same consumerist rules as a clothing company. To see reportage or an advertising message, you don’t need to open a magazine. A woman walking down the street wearing Dolce & Gabbana is plain reportage and advertising.

Benetton campaign
Breastfeeding (1989)Do you believe Italy gives the world enough talent?
I don’t. Not that talent doesn’t exist, but Italian entrepreneurs do not take risks or invest in culture. In Italy, culture is the most under-valued product, we are a country in complete cultural decline, which lives off its past legacy. Unfortunately, we bite the hand that feeds us and this is extremely sad as well as offensive.

How do you mean?
I worked abroad for 40 years and still work with clients all over the world. I live in Tuscany but here I have the sensation of been parachuted into an alienating world. Italian bureaucracy kills you, the state and its institutions block any possibility of developing the economy. This is a class-based country which rewards those who do not work – it’s absurd and detrimental.

We are far behind countries such as France, Holland or England. As Italians we need to wake up from this cultural stupor. Young Italians are mostly spoilt by over-protective and over-bearing families. Orphans are blessed!

Advertising campaign for
the Calabria regionBut what about Made In Italy, a brand that is recognised worldwide?
We live off its legacy. Do you want to know what the most creative thing is in Italy?

What?
The Mafia. It’s disgraceful but it needs to be said. There are workers who are unable to live comfortably and then there’s complete unrestrained luxury. This country still functions based on a minority who slave away, who are disciplined and who pay their taxes. In everything else it is a country of tele-addicts, shallow showgirls and con-artists.

Oliviero Toscani at
his research lab La
Sterpaia in PisaAnd what opportunities do Italian women have?
It’s a disaster; I reckon things are better in Mongolia. We are a country where women come along and get respected less.

How are we viewed abroad in your opinion?
Badly. A German has a reputation for being a good professional. As an Italian I have had to work twice as hard to prove myself. For us it’s a proper climb. Most Italians aren’t aware of this.

What are the qualities that a young person would need to have to work with you at La Sterpaia?
To not be gregarious, to not conform to what seems ‘safe’; to dare, to rebel against the norms, even in day-to-day life. I am not interested in consensus. Whoever looks for consensus is mediocre. I want people with points of view, who go against the norm, because art has nothing to do with normality, or with morality. Art is allowed to be salacious too.

OLIVIERO TOSCANI

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

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