The interviews reminded me of the 2000 Benetton ad campaign against the death penalty, called "We On Death Row", which included interviews with 26 death row inmates. (They appeared in a magazine insert that accompanied an issue of the now-defunct Talk Magazine.) The point was not to argue their innocence, or that their legal cases were mishandled, but to show the public their human side. Like the lifers Bell interviews, many of them were remorseful. I described the Benetton interviews several years ago here this way:
They talk about their hopes, their fears, their lost dreams, their remorse, their nightmares. They talk about what it's like to know with certainty that the state is going to kill you, how they've messed up their lives, the things they miss, the people they've loved, their religion, their mothers, their children...and more.
Another similarity: the lack of presentation of an opposite point of view. How refreshing to have a show that unabashedly tells the story of a particular group in their own words, and shows the benefit of prison education and rehab programs, without feeling the need to muck it up with the views of prosecutors and crime victims. It's acknowledged at the beginning that these people did bad things. End of that topic. In the press release accompanying Benetton's ad, Benetton said:
Leaving aside any social, political, judicial or moral consideration, this project aims at showing to the public the reality of capital punishment, so that no one around the world, will consider the death penalty neither as a distant problem nor as news that occasionally appears on TV. Toscani's images aim at giving back a human face to the prisoners on death row, to remind those "respectable people (who) are always so sure they're right..."(1) that the debate concerns men and women in flesh and blood, not virtual characters eliminated or spared with a simple click as with a videogame.
... Benetton's campaigns have managed to tear down the wall of indifference contributing at raising the awareness of universal problems among world's citizens. At the same time, they have paved the way for innovative modes of corporate communication
In 2000, the Benetton campaign was met with outrage and public protest by crime victims. Sears Roebuck pulled all Benetton merchandise from its stores.
I think CNN's decision to support and air a series like Bell's shows we're making progress, even if it's at a snail's pace. On the plus side, it's better than going backwards. So I hope you'll watch. Good ratings will hopefully lead to networks commissioning more shows like this.
