United Colors of Sleaze and Exploitation: ‘Missouri’s attorney general has sued Italian clothing maker Benetton for alleged fraudulent

misrepresentation in gaining access to four American death row inmates who later appeared in the company’s ad campaign.

Attorney General Jay Nixon said that when prison authorities in Potosi, Missouri, granted permission they were told that Benetton’s

“We, On Death Row” project was sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and that interviews done with

the inmates were intended for an article for Newsweek magazine.

“Instead, we find out that the project is a part of a Benetton advertising campaign, and the photographs and interviews are being

used in an ad campaign that includes billboards, videos and a 90-page supplement to be distributed nationwide in magazines,” Nixon

said.’