Here is a few of my thoughts about the Benetton Unemployee of The Year video I posted in my previous post.
link
Benetton is being rather criticized for it.
Out of the main reasons I managed to find online was:
1. Because the company is famous of being controversial in their advertising campaigns and this is JUST supposed to draw attention to their brand.
2. That even if they genuinely wanted to make their campaign socially relevant, they are NOT SOLVING the problem.
3. Or actually that unemployed person cannot afford a Benetton cardigan.
You could agree with all of those, but what I think is that this advertisement or any other advertisements like this just exploit the fact that there is a problem.
We are living in the times our parents had never encountered. Being painfully unemployed just after leaving school. The number of unemployed people reaching 25% in some European countries, this is like one in 5 people. If you have 4 friends you see regularly, this is one of your bunch. And this is just the ones registered. I am not registered. Nobody actually counts me in.
This Benetton campaign makes a mainstream comment on the unforgettable moment when your dreams smash on the concrete after you realize all these years in education, all these years of being diligent, all these years of investing in yourself are just not going to pay off. The problem is that we are not talking about people who had highest marks but not real skills and no idea about reality. We are talking about thousands of people who are reality-aware, who have actual skills, who were actively shaping their steel character to rock the job market. Just like those guys in this advert.
The only consolation is that it MUST pay off one day. That this makes us stronger and more flexible. That when jobs come we will be the first to get them because we will be the ones with extra skills gained as receptionists, drivers and cashiers.
The bitter question is who will want a biotechnologist who hasn’t been in a lab for 3 years and who did not have access to the news from the field? Or a newly qualified lawyer with no knowledge of what has happened to legislation in the last 3 years?
May the NEET force be with us!
