Penis calendar launched by Italian photographer who also snapped Benetton’s controversial "kissing ads"

Italian shock photographer Oliviero Toscani

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that Italian shock photographer Oliviero Toscani’s latest venture is a "calendar featuring 12 penis close-ups in an ad for a group of companies that make naturally-tanned leather." Tosacani is the same photographer who took photos for the controversial "Unhate" ad campaign of Italian clothes brand Benetton. The said campaign had featured "Photoshop-edited" images of rival world leaders kissing each other.

According to the report, Toscani "launched the calendar at an event in Florence also attended by famously well-endowed Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi."  The report quoted art critic Philippe Daverio, who said: "Naked women are tolerated in calendars but unfortunately men aren’t. We are here to defend men’s rights."

In 2011, Toscani last year focused on women’s genitalia for a calendar for the same Vera Pelle consortium. Backthen, according to the report, "Feminists argued that the graphic images offended female dignity." But, this year, with the "penis calendar," one woman reportedly said, "I think there’s some kind of justice and equality here! Last year it was women, this year it’s men."

For more on this story, read the AFP report.