Benetton’s Unhate Campaign

Benetton’s newest campaign is sure pushing a lot of people’s buttons.  Benetton has released a series of ads that show various world leaders kissing.

Here’s another link.

Pictures include:

Barack Obama making out with both Hu Jintao and Hugo Chavez (in separate pictures); Angela Merkel smooching with Nicolas Sarkozy; and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas kissing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And last but not least:  the Pope smooching with Sheik Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb.  The Vatican has threatened legal action against Benetton for this photo.

Each picture is captioned “unhate.”

It’s hard to know which is more offensive to the Powers That Be — the pictures themselves or the word “unhate.”