Tyler Tedeschi - Recording Engineer

UNHATE

Disagreeing with someone may lead to disliking someone, and disliking someone may lead to hating someone, and "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer…"(1 Jn. 3.15). Hate, the feeling of intense or passionate dislike for someone, is something that needs to change in our society. The UNHATE campaign, created by The United Colors of Benetton, has spread across the globe virally seeking to contribute to the creation of a new culture of tolerance. By creating ads of world leaders locking lips, Benetton has forced the public to reflect on this matter. When publishing this ad, Benetton simply, but powerfully, confronted a world known issue called hate, and is encouraging us to take action against it.

At first glance, the image is simply shocking. I am intrigued by the sheer oddness of the situation, since the event where two world leaders are kissing on the lips, would never occur in reality. Still, one could immediately jump to conclusions about this ad and say it's promoting homosexuality, which is one of the disturbing aspects of this piece. However, even though I do not believe this ad is promoting homosexuality, I do believe that it draws a certain crowd that would then investigate because of the initial suspicions of it. In saying this, Benetton has done afabulous job of luring in an audience due to shock factor alone. Not only is it just two men locking lips, its two world leaders, Barack Obama, President of the United States, and Hu Jintao, the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. This maneuver has got me asking, "Why is my president kissing one, another man, and two, our adversary from China? ". This introduces yet another issue that people often fight or disagree with; loving your enemy, or in this case, kissing them.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's, Brother's Karamazov, Alyosha, Ivan's brother, is able to combat all of his brother's