In a miniskirt, eating pizza on the shores of Lake Como or taking a selfie in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. The well-known Venus by Sandro Botticelli, protagonist of one of the most majestic works of the Italian Renaissance, has left the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to become Italy’s new ambassador, a “virtual influencer” with whom the Government Italian aims to attract visitors from all over the world.
Entitled “Open to meraviglia” (Open to wonder), the latest campaign of the Italian Ministry of Tourism has not left anyone indifferent. Starting with its high cost, nine million euros, for an advertisement commissioned by the prestigious communication agency Armando Testa, which uses artificial intelligence to transform Botticelli’s work into a modern woman who wanders all over Belpaese featuring iconic sites such as the Duomo in Florence or the Colosseum in Rome.
But the answer, despite the iconic hair, has not been what was expected. The media and social networks have been filled with criticism and ridicule for a campaign full of clichés that Italians themselves often complain about when they appear in foreign newspapers. The ridiculousness was even greater when it was discovered that in one of the images that appear in the video, bought from a platform, there are young people toasting in Slovenia with Slovenian wine, despite the fact that it is intended to represent an Italian scene.
“Today the pizza with Venus, tomorrow David playing the mandolin? We don’t make caricatures with our art”, said the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. The art historian Tomasso Montanari, in an article for the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, describes the campaign as “grotesque” and “shameful”.
Neither does the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, who is the current Vice Minister of Culture, like it. “Publicity in Italy is done by works of art, without the need to disguise them”, considers the former minister, and remarks that he would have preferred to see the protagonist stripped, as in the work of art, and not transformed it’s Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s most famous real influencer, with almost 30 million followers worldwide. He doesn’t even like the title of the ad, which mixes English and Italian. “‘Open to wonder’? What language is it?”, he asked. The paradox is that a few weeks ago a deputy from Brothers of Italy, the party to which the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, is a member, presented a parliamentary motion to fine officials up to 100,000 euros for using anglicisms in communications officers
“It’s the classic example of a campaign that wants to please everyone and doesn’t please anyone. A series of banalities put together: Venus, Ferragni. Everything that seeks consensus creates mediocrity, and this is a good example”, assessed the photographer Oliviero Toscani, great Italian expert in advertising campaigns.
In an interview, the Minister of Tourism has defended herself by assuring that they chose Botticelli’s Venus because it is “an icon known around the world and a symbol of our Italian spirit”, and if they have turned her into an influencer, it has been to attract the younger audience. In addition, he called those who ridicule the campaign “snobs”. “I don’t understand the criticism. Pizza is famous all over the world, it is part of the Mediterranean diet and our cuisine, which is appreciated, imitated and copied all over the world. It may be criticized by the slightly snobbish people who eat caviar and salmon, but the majority of Italians and the large number of tourists who come from all over the world appreciate it”, said Santanchè, and pointed out that the nine million are for move advertising to airports and train stations around the world.
ITA Airways, the Italian state airline heir to the former Alitalia, will broadcast the video on flights, and it will also be shown in stations in France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The campaign will be developed in all major international markets, particularly in targets such as Europe, the Gulf countries, the US and China. Italy is hoping that its criticized Venus will help them continue the path of tourism growth that it has experienced this Easter, when it was the second most visited European destination.
