German Ban on Benetton’s AIDS-Awareness Ads Repealed
The German Federal Constitutional Court yesterday overturned a 1995 ban on Benetton advertisements focusing on social issues, such as one depicting a man stamped with "HIV Positive," saying that the lower court that imposed the ban had violated the right to freedom of speech, the Associated Press reports. An "advertising watchdog group" filed the motion against the ads five years ago, calling the campaign "morally offensive" and in violation of "the principles of fair competition by using compassion for commercial purposes." The ban was appealed not by Benetton, but by Gruner and Jahr, the publisher of Germany's Stern magazine, which had run the ads (Associated Press, 12/12).
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