You’ve seen United Colors of Benetton’s Unhate advertisements. They’re seared in your brain.

There’s the one with Merkel and Sarkozy. Another with Obama and Hu Jintao. One featuring Netanyahou and Abbas.

According to the Associated Press, Benetton withdrew an image of Pope Benedict XVI and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb after the Vatican threatened legal action. The White House made it clear that it was against the idea of using the US President’s likeness for commercial purposes. Sure, Benetton has a history of provocative ads, but these take the cake.

We’re happy to be working with Benetton this weekend to make these ads even more interactive. If you’re a reader of the Austrian Kurier, you can take a photo of the Kurier to unlock a special coupon redeemable at Benetton Megastores in Vienna and Saltzburg from Friday, December 16th to Monday, December 19.

via: The Kurier’s article in German

ATMedia.at wrote about our collaboration

Our image recognition software is fun to play with even if you’re not in Vienna or Saltzburg this weekend. If you take a picture of any of the ads with Paperboy, (try it!) you’ll be redirected to the advertisement on your phone where you can watch the UNHATE Guerilla videos, enter a contest and see the rest of the ads via the UNHATE website. There, you can watch the film UNHATE, by French director Laurent Chanez, about the precarious balance and complex interweaving the drive to hate and the reasons to love. That’s a nice message for the holidays.