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Saturday, September 29

Advertising Age meets WTH?! in Italian Advertising

Quick!  What do you think this image is advertising?
for those who don't know Italian, it reads:  Quality isn't for everyone.



If you answered, 'prosciutto'.  You're half-right.  
Only because, great minds think alike and that's what I thought it meant.

I thought it was a charming message that the CETUS company (reminding me of Parma's popular prosciutto purveyors, Citterio) was serving up to remind us all...Where's the Pork?

But then I read the tagline.  Your home, par excellence.

And I seriously didn't know whether or not to be offended, I mean, were they calling us pigs?
Or, totally amused because they were calling the politicians feeding at the trough pigs?
So, I settled on something much more juvenile:  must be a reference to the three little pigs -- except there weren't three of them sitting on their haunches there, and where were the bricks and mortar?  Despite my lack of visual cues, I was pretty happy with my brain synapses and knew I could make a leap in logic just like the best of 'em.


But then I looked at the logo.  Expecting it to be one of the ubiquitous real estate companies [who hold a singular place in my Hall of Fame for seriously lousy adverts], I knew I'd be satisfied.  Instead it reads,  Ceramics & Home Furnishings.

I kid you not. 

So, if anyone out there can tell me the connection or, in reality, the non-connection between the pig and home furnishings, I'd be absolutely titillated to know...

As for my Advertising Age Ranking?  
Since pigs are so smart, I'm going to give it a healthy 52 years.
After all, the ad is truly working its charm because it 'had me' standing there for well over a minute pondering such issues and now taking their message (note: term used loosely) out to the web.



2 comments:

  1. Francesca:
    If you have stand in front of an ad for minute to figure it out then it;;s swill....It sure ain't good copy hence lousy advertising.

    My little video I sent you beat pants off that monstrosity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Baha! That's a new one...I saw another tongue in cheek ad around Lucca the other day, I'm going to have to track it down again and properly document it.

    ReplyDelete

Grazie! for adding your 2 centesimi...