For decades, the photographer Oliviero Toscani helped make Benetton clothing a huge name. He did it with so-called shockvertising: provocative, socially progressive ads that spurred outrage and drew headlines, whether they involved an AIDS patient on his deathbed, Mafia vendettas, horses copulating or two actors depicting a priest and a nun kissing.

But on Thursday, Benetton decided that Mr. Toscani, who had returned in 2017 as the creative director after a hiatus in the early 2000s, had gone too far.

The company fired Mr. Toscani, 77, over comments he made about the 2018 collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, that killed 43 people.

The company and its chairman, Luciano Benetton, “completely disassociates itself from Mr. Toscani’s remarks,” the brand said in statement, while “renewing their sincere closeness to the families of the victims and to all those who have been involved in this terrible tragedy.”