AIDS and Advertisement

Advertisements are created to capture the attention of the public. Many large corporations, such as United Colors of Benetton, pay millions of dollars to advertise their products. While other companies' advertisements were similar to one another, United Colors of Benetton stray away from the "safe" advertisements. In the early 1990s, United Colors of Benetton advertise many controversial pictures to generate more publicity/attention from the public and the press. With many controversial pictures, curiosity occurs in people; wanting to know more about the pictures and what significance do the pictures have.
The AIDS advertisement of United Colors of Benetton tackled a taboo subject that people in the 1990s rejected or ignored. Knowing people would gossip or argue about the advertisement; United Colors of Benetton intentionally used the picture of a man dying in his father's arms. One would say that United Colors of Benetton was trying to raise awareness for AIDS, but United Colors of Benetton is a clothing company and there weren’t any clues as to tell what the man was dying of. When people look at the advertisement, a man dying in his father's arms is not an effective way to sell clothing. Plus there is no caption, nothing what-so-ever but a rectangular box that said "United Colors of Benetton."
During 1990, there was a lack of information/knowledge that is associated with AIDS. With the lack of information/knowledge, people tend to associate what they do not know as something that is bad or unpleasant. Looking through the perspectives of people in 1990, the thought of AIDS is usually associated with homosexuals and people who have blood transfusions. People hide the fact that they have AIDS in order to fit in to society. People with AIDS felt ashamed of themselves. AIDS was not widely accepted by the public in the 1990s. Plus people in 1990 do not know that ANYONE can contract AIDS.
What exactly was United Colors of Benetton trying to portray in their 1990 AIDS advertisement? Just by looking at the picture, as stated in paragraph two, people do not know what the boy was dying of. How would the public know if it was AIDS or some other diseases? The only thing that the public has to go by is an image of a father, mother, and sister crying over their son/brother, who is about to die. I guess the good thing about the advertisement is that it shows that United Colors of Benetton cares about ordinary people, but the advertisement do not specify which group of people that United Colors of Benetton is signifying or cares about. Is the advertisement about people with AIDS? But the advertisement did not mention anything about AIDS. The advertisement shows that United Colors of Benetton cares, but who do they care about? Many people said "a picture is worth a thousand words," that might be true if people understand the symbols that are present in the picture. In the case of United Colors of Benetton's AIDS advertisement, the picture is vague.