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Missouri and Benetton Settle Lawsuit Over Death Row Advertisements

On June 15, 2001, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon announced that Italian clothes making company Benetton had agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Missouri by paying $50,000 to a victims compensation fund. In February 2000, Nixon filed suit after Benetton ran an international advertising campaign featuring several dozen death row prisoners in a variety of states, including four from Missouri. [See: "Death As a Salesman", PLN , Feb. 2001]

The suit claimed that Benetton representatives misled prison officials about the purpose of interviewing the four death row prisoners in Missouri.

As previously reported, Benetton is notorious for its "shockvertising" which uses provocative themes to sell clothes. Before using death row prisoners, Benetton had used famine and AIDS victims to sell clothes.

In addition to paying $50,000, Benetton executives also agreed to apologize to the families of the four people allegedly killed by the prisoners featured in the ad. See: Nixon v. Benetton Inc. , Washington County, Missouri, Circuit Court, Case No. CV100040CC.

Source: National Law Journal.

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Related legal case

Nixon v. Benetton Inc