of provocative
advertising campaigns for Benetton, the Italian clothing maker famed for
its colorful knitwear. But that decades-long relationship has
been severed after Toscani outraged relatives of victims in the deadly
2018 Genoa bridge collapse.
Toscani
told RAI television this week, "Who cares about a bridge collapse?`` He
was responding to a public flap over a photograph of founding members
of the Sardines political protest movement alongside key members of the
Benetton family, which controls the company that maintained the bridge.
The
president of the committee to remember the 43 people who died
August 14, 2018, in the Morandi Bridge collapse called the
remarks "inopportune and confused.''
`'It
could be that [Toscani] travels by helicopter and using a bridge is for
commoners,'' Egle Possetti said. `'Unfortunately, many Italians travel
over bridges every day, and unfortunately some people will remain
forever under ‘that bridge,' certainly not due to some stray lightning
strike. Forty-three innocent deaths count little for him, but for us
they were everything.''
'Deeply pained'
Toscani apologized in an interview with La Repubblica published Thursday. ``I am sorry. More: I am ashamed to apologize. I am humanly destroyed and deeply pained.''
But the damage was done.
Benetton
said in a statement Thursday that the group "completely disassociates
itself from Mr. Toscani's remarks and acknowledges the impossibility of
continuing the professional relationship with its creative director.''
It
added that chairman Luciano Benetton "and the entire company renew
their sincere closeness to the families of the victims and to all those
who have been involved in this terrible tragedy.''
The
Benetton family, as controlling stakeholder in the Autostrade highway
company that maintained the Morandi bridge, has been embattled
ever since the accident as the government squabbles over whether to
revoke its agreement to operate thousands of kilometers of Italian toll
highways.
So the
photo showing the founders of the Sardines movement alongside
the Benettons was widely criticized as a misstep by the less than
three-month-old group.
Since
its founding in November, the group has mobilized tens of thousands to
protest the growing popularity of right-wing leader Matteo Salvini. The
leaders said their appearance in the photo, at the Benetton cultural
center Fabrica, had been "naive.''
VOA