Austria, Despar’s advertising slip: the spot shot in Genoa makes fun of Italians
Austria. “All good, all good“, Dice the cheerful jingle chosen by the international supermarket chain despair to promote Italian products in Austria through a series of commercials already broadcast this summer on televisions and online channels. Not so good, given that Spar Österreich, flooded with controversy and jeers on both sides of the border, would have already run for cover to avoid further slips in the future.
But what’s so strange about the videos? First of all, a fact that concerns us closely: they are all shot in Liguria, between Genoa and the Cinque Terre. Among the backgrounds of the characters in the foreground we perfectly recognize Piazza Banchi, the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Piazza De Ferrari, the small port of Vernazza. And this would also be good. Except that …
Except that the content of the commercials appears rather questionable, when not peinlich, “Embarrassing”, as many Austrian users on Facebook have defined it. Apart from the inevitable tomato pasta – and a roundup of packaged products such as pizza, lasagna and sausages – to communicate the Italian spirit (after all the narrator says “Original das from Italy“, The original from Italy) are mainly the actors who perform in a series of typical gestures and stereotyped facial expressions, completely detached from the rest of the message.
And so a man clearly indicates that “there is no money” while the overlay says “Italian for advanced students“. In another version that we found on the chain’s Croatian YouTube channel, a man with Indian features obsessively repeats the famous “tulip hand” as if to say “What do you want? What does he say? “With a nice smile on his face. A female figure follows that repeats the same gesture while the song says” A large plate of salad, four eggs and an omelette “, and then remembers again:” All right with Despar , lalalaalà “.
But the main dish, the apotheosis, is undoubtedly the fake carabiniere who, in the middle of Piazza De Ferrari, protrudes his shoulders forward and with both arms points towards the genital area performing in a wry smile. In Italy – sorry for the vulgarity, but at least we understand each other – this gesture is associated with the expression “i’m fucking“. Inevitable comments in German: “But at least you know what that means?”. Obviously not, but everything is fine.
A fool that brings to mind another advertising genius born in Austria, that of McDonald’s which in 2019 proposed the sandwich Beautiful Italy “For real mampfiosi“. A clever pun on the verb mampfen, “Binge”, which had unleashed the Italian rage on social media. On the case of “All right”, for now Spar Österreich replied that all criticisms will be forwarded “to our responsible department so that they can be included in future decisions”.