Vatican, White House Slam World Leaders Kissing Ads

A Green Carpet Sequined With Stars at the Latin GRAMMY Awards

The stars reigned at the 2011 Latin GRAMMY Awards green carpet at the Mandalay Bay Resort/Casino Thursday night.

An advertising campaign that depicts President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI kissing other world leaders on the mouth drew tough criticism from the White House and the Vatican on Thursday.

The United Colors of Benetton revealed digitally manipulated images of world leaders kissing as part of the company's new Unhate campaign. The shocking new campaign features the modified images of President Obama locking lips with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu smooching Palestinian National Authority, president Mahmoud Abbas as well as others.

The Vatican however is taking legal action against the Benetton clothing company to prevent the circulation of an ad featuring a fake photo montage of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips.

The Vatican said Thursday the image is "offensive not only to the dignity of the pope and the Catholic Church, but also to the sensibilities of believers."

"It shows a serious lack of respect for the pope," the Vatican spokesman said.

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Benetton withdrew the ad immediately after its debut Wednesday once the Vatican denounced it as an unacceptable provocation.

Benetton had said its "unhate" campaign was aimed at fostering tolerance, but the Vatican's daily newspaper Thursday called it "an insult to believers in the name of profit."

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Eric Schultz slammed the images as well.

"The White House has a longstanding policy disapproving of the use of the president's name and likeness for commercial purposes," Schultz said.

Schultz declined to say if the White House would contact Benetton directly to express its objections.

While some people are taking the campaign as a good joke, the Vatican and some newspapers are not so forgiving. The images have already been banned by The Sunday Times, International Herald Tribune and The Guardian.

It wasn't clear if the ads had been published anywhere; on Wednesday images from the campaign were unfurled briefly in Milan, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rome but were quickly taken away.

"We want to reaffirm the value of the brand. We are going back to the tradition of [Benetton] and will make the most of this. But we are reconciling the past with the future. At this time, when something bad is happening in the world, we want to focus people's eyes on the positives. This campaign is about reconciliation and acceptance," the head of the company and son of the founder, Alessandro Benetton, told The Independent newspaper.

Benetton created the Unhate Foundation as a way to contribute to the creation of a new culture of tolerance, to combat hatred and build on Benetton's underpinning values, according to the Unhate Foundation's website. Besides making world leaders make out, the foundation also has set up a "kiss wall" on Facebook that lets people upload their own kiss photos.

Shock ads have long been a part of Benetton's publicity strategy, with photographer Oliviero Toscani's famous campaigns featuring death row inmates and people dying of AIDS.

Benetton said the photos of political and religious leaders kissing were "symbolic images of reconciliation” with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation,” to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation."

In a statement, the Treviso, Italy-based clothing manufacturer said it was sorry that its image had offended the faithful and that as a result "we have decided with immediate effect to withdraw this image from every publication."

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.