During the 1980s and ’90s, Benetton was one of the most visible fashion brands in the world. Known for its brightly colored basics—especially knitwear—the Italian company sold affordable, coordinated clothing. Its global identity was shaped by its punchy advertising. Under the direction of Oliviero Toscani, Benetton pioneered a new visual strategy, “shockvertising,” that used advertising space not to sell clothes but to provoke and provide social commentary. As part of a wider multiyear campaign that drew attention to the AIDS crisis, this poster uses a dense mosaic of photographic portraits to spell out the name of the disease, an effect created through early digital compositing. Each image is of a real person who died of AIDS-related illness, reflecting a range of ages, races, and sexual orientations rarely acknowledged together in public-facing AIDS campaigns at the time. While potentially out of sync with the opinions of many AIDS activists, Benetton and many who saw such advertisements viewed the campaign as radical in its inclusivity and tone. ​​