Benetton has launched a global ad campaign called 'Africa works', showing Africans working for themselves to beat poverty and promote equitable development.
The global campaign promotes the Birima micro-credit program in Senegal, founded by Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour.
The campaign features Senegalese workers who have used micro loans to start small, productive businesses, including a fisherman, a decorator, a musician, a jewellery-maker, a farmer, a tailor, two textile sellers and a boxer.
The campaign is aiming to show these workers as a symbol of an Africa that uses the dignity of work to fight poverty, promote equitable development, maximise its resources and take back responsibility for creating its future.
In addition to outdoor and press advertising, the campaign will include a series of projects and events. There will be a new version of N'Dour's Birima song, which was first recorded in 2000 and rearranged by him in 2008 with the participation of singers Patti Smith, Simphiwe Dana, Irene Grandi and Francesco Renga
Birima, the name of the programme, was a legendary king of Senegal who, speaking to his people only once a year, became a symbol of the value of keeping one's word.
More ad images here.
Benetton is famous for its "United Colors" campaign by photographer Oliviero Toscani who created ads that contained striking images unrelated to any actual products being sold by the company.
The ads featured a variety of 'shocking' subjects such as a deathbed scene of a man (AIDS activist David Kirby), a bloodied, unwashed newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached, two horses mating, close-up pictures of tattoos reading "HIV Positive" on the bodies of men and women, a collage consisting of genitals of persons of various races, a priest and nun about to engage in a romantic kiss, and pictures of inmates on death row. The company's logo served as the only text accompanying the images in most of these advertisements.

Benetton's core business is clothing with the casual line marketed as the "United Colors of Benetton", a fashion-oriented "Sisley" division, "Playlife" leisurewear, and "Killer Loop" streetwear brands.