Your brave journalist was prevented from taking pictures for this Note, chased and almost run over by two angry women on bicycles last Friday. The women were wearing the disturbing medicine-shaped coffee liqueur bottle/brand they were trying to advertise, and they were shouting “Niente foto per favore, non vogliamo pubblicità!” (No pictures please, we don’t want any promotion/advertisement!)
Your correspondent wasn’t too surprised, after all siamo in Italia (we are in Italy) the place where the order of the universe is often reversed, fortunately mostly for the better, but where occasionally you get things like advertising agencies preferring that their ad campaigns remain unknown. (We are happy to comply and refrain from mentioning their name.)
And wouldn’t you know it!? Funniest thing, the campaign wasn’t all that successful! A man opened one of the shot sized containers (yes, free booze was being handed out in the streets), tasted it and then discreetly put it back in the free sample basket. A lovely elderly lady kindly refused… with a very Roman, “Ma che me volete ammazà?” (What are you trying to kill me!?)
I doubt this coffee liqueur will become the next Martini Rosso or Limoncello. Then again, who knows? After all, siamo in Italia!
– Contributed by Valentina Nesci, writer, American University of Rome Senior, Italian Notebook Editorial Intern.
Goodness sakes! I wonder what it tasted like? Great Note, Valentina, love hearing about life on the streets.
I saw these same sample giving ladies last week, but when I tried to get a sample they told me it was only for men! (Absolutely no reason for this that I can see, other than they were ladies handing out samples and were probably told to try to attract men)
But what kind of a promotional campaign starts by refusing to hand over the sample and alienating half the possible market.
Allyson, that’s hilarious. The ItalianNotebook editorial office is now rolling on the floor laughing at the now-even-more-absurd reality of this dumbest of campaigns! We thought our encounter was bad enough, yours just adds to it even more. Thanks for sharing!
Ho posseduto, è buona
jojo
si si.. as we say ‘in a normal universe’
Now that is a Note to write home about! Fab……..
The Italian Notebook is what the WEB was designed for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MILLE GRAZIE
Absolutely hysterical…and you wonder why ad campaigns are so hard-pressed for, well, press! Maybe they should have tried the standard, naked approach. But then, that would have been like a Monty Python chase scene. Great piece Valentina!