Video: In times of #metoo, the advertising of Eataly Usa did not appeal to the Americans
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
“Bring home an Italian. Because the smell has a value"
What you have just read is a slogan from Eataly USA's Christmas advertising campaign, in this case the protagonist is the truffle.
There are other slogans, always referring to Italians - edible or human products, it makes no difference for the American branch of Eataly - such as the one on wine: “Bring an Italian home. Powerful legs, better body.
Between implicit sexual references and allusions to old clichés about the scent of early Italian emigrants, it was to be expected that someone would not be exactly flattered by the advertisements, and would protest.
Too bad that the remedy, that is the answer (not) given by the managers of the chain, was worse than the evil, complete with a case that ended up on the front pages of the newspapers.
On December 20, Brittany Pape, a client of Italian origins, wrote to the public relations manager asking to suspend the advertising campaign described as dirty and in bad taste. Also in consideration of the events that involved the famous chef Mario Batali, one of the owners of Eataly USA, accused by several women of being a sexual predator.
At that point, Sara Massarotto, social media manager of the American store chain, would have discussed the problem with some colleagues, mistakenly including in an e-mail the very customer who had complained. The e-mail shows how Massarotto had decided, after consulting a consultancy company, not to take any action. This is the offending sentence: "Please keep the documentation and DO NOT reply to the customer's e-mail".
A client who, in fact, reports that he never received an answer, on the other hand spoke Louis Rago, president of the American Foundation for Human Relations in Chicago, stating that "anyone who has approved such a campaign should be fired for the dissemination of an image offensive and negative of the Italians ".
To which, Massarotto finally decided to respond, explaining that the ad "was a direct reference to the intense aromas of our prized truffles", and returning the accusations of sexual references to the sender.
It will certainly be so, but perhaps the creativity not exactly from the annals of marketing of the advertisers who work on Eataly USA campaigns, should be kept in check.
Recommended:
Supermarkets: who did well, who did not and how they will be in 2017
How did Italian supermarkets fare in 2017? Esselunga, Eurospin and Lidl did well, Auchan and Carrefour did not. But what will supermarkets do in 2017 to fight the drop in consumption?
FICO Eataly World: a job that the Guardian did not like
The Guardian accuses F.I.CO Eataly World, the theme park on food open in the outskirts of Bolgona, of being a betrayal of Italian gastronomy rather than a tribute, of offering a dystopian vision of the future and of being a steroid-pumped Whole Foods
Where did you eat without appeal in 2011?
We who stubbornly eat out have numerous opportunities to feel stupid. Stupid for the childish complacency linked to the lists of the best places, the possibility of compiling and sharing them in what now passes for social life, in blogs, on Twitter or Facebook. What better circumstance than the end of the year to list the places where we have irrevocably […]
Call me D-Fest again (what did those who did not come miss)
I want to be honest. Since I have been doing this job, and obviously there is no mention of decades, I have always thought that chefs were somewhat arrogant people, entrenched behind the dishes that they do best and not very willing to compare. The signs of a possible error came with interviews, dialogue, knowledge but […]
Eataly did not take a euro of refreshments, says Oscar Farinetti
Oscar Farinetti is controversial towards the Government, which seems not to realize how important Eataly is for Italy: the food giant is not entitled to refreshments