In a miniskirt, eating pizza on the shores of Lake Como or taking a selfie in Piazza San Marco 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 the new ambassador of Italy, a “virtual influencer” with which the Italian Government intends to attract visitors from all over the world.
Entitled “Open to meraviglia†(open to wonder), the latest campaign by the Italian Ministry of Tourism has not left anyone indifferent. Beginning with its high cost, 9 million euros, for an advertisement commissioned from the prestigious communication agency Armando Testa that uses artificial intelligence to transform Botticelli’s work into a modern woman who wanders throughout the Belpaese presenting emblematic places such as the Duomo in Florence or the Colosseum in Rome.
The Executive of Giorgia Meloni has enthusiastically presented this latest campaign, which aims to show a fresh and renewed image of the Italian tourism sector. But the response, despite the iconic mane, has not been as expected. The media and social networks have been filled with criticism and ridicule for a campaign full of the clichés that Italians themselves often complain about when they appear in foreign newspapers. The ridicule has been greater when it has been discovered that in one of the images that appear in the video, purchased from a platform, young people appear 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? Let’s not make caricatures with our artâ€, said the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. The art historian Tomasso Montanari, in an article for the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, calls the campaign “grotesque” and “shameful.”
Nor does the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, who is the current vice-minister of Culture, like it. “Advertising to Italy is done by works of art, without the need to disguise them”, considers the also former minister, noting that he would have preferred to see the protagonist naked, as in the work of art, and not transforming herself into Chiara Ferragni, the real influencer most famous in Italy, with almost 30 million followers around the world. She doesn’t even like the title of the ad, which mixes English and Italian. “‘Open to meraviglia’? What language is it? â€, He asked. The paradox is that a few weeks ago a deputy from the Brothers of Italy, the party of which the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, is a part, presented a parliamentary motion to fine up to 100,000 euros for officials who used Anglicisms in official communications.
“It is the classic example of a campaign that wants everyone to like it and nobody likes it. A series of banalities put together: Venus, Ferragni. Everything that seeks consensus creates mediocrity, and this is a good exampleâ€, valued the photographer Oliviero Toscani, a great Italian expert in advertising campaigns.
In an interview, the Minister of Tourism has defended herself by assuring that they have chosen Botticelli’s Venus because she is “an icon known throughout the world and a symbol of our Italian spirit”, and if they have turned her into an influencer it has been to attract the public. younger audience. In addition, she called those who ridicule the campaign “snobsâ€. I don’t understand the criticism. Pizza is famous all over the world, it is part of the Mediterranean diet and of our cuisine, which is appreciated, imitated and copied all over the world. It may be criticized by the somewhat snobbish people who eat caviar and salmon, but the majority of Italians and the many tourists who come from all over the world appreciate it,” said Santanchè, noting that the 9 million are to transfer advertising to the airports and railway stations around the world.
Almost half of the investment will be concentrated in the main world airports. ITA Airways, the Italian state airline inheritor of the old Alitalia, will broadcast the video on all its flights, and will also show them at stations in France, Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The campaign will run in all major international markets, particularly in major markets such as Europe, the Gulf countries, the US, Central and South America, China, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. Rome hopes that its criticized Venus will help them continue on the path of tourism growth that has experienced this Holy Week, when the transalpine country was the second most visited European destination.
