Welcome Everyone.

Welcome to News From Italy, my blog about our Italian Adventure. Although this blog has now ceased publication I will be continuing to blog and I am sincerely hoping that my many followers here will move with me to Travel Tales blog to follow my next adventures wherever they may take me. The links to my other blogs are:-


I look forward to keeping in touch with you via them, thanks once again for all the support you have given 'News From Italy' over the years.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Telecom Italia - Italian Advertising Part One - Friday Feature

 


Last week I explained that from today I would be changing direction with my Friday post which since the end of March has been called Friday Foto, from now on it will be called Friday Feature which I feel gives me more scope to try out some other ideas.

I have been thinking of other things to share with you from our everyday life here in Italy, besides my photography and one of the things that came to mind was that I had seen a video of an advert featured on another blog I read.

It is that post that has given me the idea to expand on this theme.

Italian Advertising is something I can share with you all over the world as visual media either in print or on film is usually easy to understand in any language. I thought therefore that it might be fun for you to view some of the Italian advertising campaigns via ‘News From Italy’.

With this in mind I have done some research to see if it was a feasible idea and thanks to YouTube have decided that I could do a series, especially when there are no Sagras or Festas to write about. At times this summer you must have thought our life here in Italy was just one long party!

Television advertising or Commercial Breaks as they used to be called in the UK many years ago are a big thing here on Italian television. I often think the adverts last longer than the section of the programme it has followed! Just like the rest of the world advertising and publicity are of great importance in Italy and millions of Euros are spent in advertising campaigns.

The advert my blogging friend recently posted was an advert from a Telecom Italia campaign starring John Travolta and Michelle Hunziker and as it was this advert that gave me the inspiration it will be the first one I feature.

John Travolta "tries" to Speak Italian

Michelle Hunziker was born in Switzerland on January 24,1977 and is well know to Italian audiences as an actress, model, singer and television personality.

She was married to Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti from 1998 to 2002; they have one daughter together, Aurora, born on December 5, 1996. Those of you who listen to my Sunday Songs will already be familiar with this name, as I have featured him.

John Travolta was born February 18, 1954 in America. He is an actor, dancer and singer who  first became famous in the 1970s, after starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease

John Travolta has done a series of commercials in Italy for Telecom Italia with  Michelle Hunziker. The commercials are silly but funny!  In the most recent one he asks Michelle to teach him some Italian words as so far he only seems to have learnt something that shocks Michelle.

Here is the link to the first episode for which unfortunately embedding has now been disabled. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWrUUUN-UcY&feature=related   Worth watching first if you have time as it is amusing.

Following the link above will allow you to view the entire series so far via You Tube.

The video featured below is the most recent in the series and has this summer been playing on our Televisions here in Italy.

 

stupefania

With thanks to All Roads Lead To Pecetto for the inspiration for this new series of posts.  Thankyou also to her for encouragement to go ahead with this idea.

LATEST NEWS!

For those of you following my Dishwasher Saga on September 10th I posted the following update.

No further news from the Engineer about the dishwasher, we have spoken to the office. They have no news and promise to ring back when they have some so we wait.   Dishwasher Saga

On Friday 17th we spoke to the office again and were told that it was now repaired and would be delivered back to us, sometime this week. Well guess what we had a phone call this evening and it is due to be delivered tomorrow morning, Tuesday 21st September.

The good news is that the dishwasher arrived on Tuesday as promised and it worked fantastic! The bad news is that it leaks leaving a large puddle on the kitchen floor, the engineer is due to visit us yet again this morning.

8 comments:

  1. Quote: I often think the adverts last longer than the section of the programme it has followed!
    You are so true Linda, that's why I don't see Tv anymore.
    That and because blogging takes all my time ;)
    And those ad are too much silly, having John Travolta they could have thought something better.
    So sorry for your dishwasher saga.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Acch! Don't even get me started on Telecom! The Hunz and Travolta may be darling together, but youtube commenters (most likely disgruntled Telecom workers) feel otherwise. We were told just yesterday that the problem with our line was being experienced throughout the entire peninsula! Bad enough when there is no internet, but when there is neither phone service as well? GRRRRRR! Still, I'd say that your dishwasher sagra is much, much worse. At least for me I have enough to keep myself busy...hmmm...did you say that you'd like to see that chicken race? I just might get out there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alessandra - They are silly but amusing in a sort of annoying way and I wanted to share the Italian style of advertising with others around the world.

    Rowena - I know Telecom Italia do not have a good reputation but I thought it would be fun to show those outside Italy these ads. When we moved house we were told we could have hi speed internet by them, until the engineer came and thought it was hilarious we had been told it was even possible! So now I have a wonderful wireless connection independent which works well as luckily we have a receiver in reach. Oh yes love to see a video of that!

    Dishwasher, two engineers here this am and they hope to have repaired leak, cannot try until tonight as they told us to wait for glue to dry!

    Enjoy your weekend ladies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know Linda it was not a critics toward you, just I hate Telecom, haha!

    ReplyDelete
  5. In the states we often turn the commericals down, or go the kitchen to get a refill. So very few are worth watching, and you can not even tell what some are advertising. I am not wasting brain cells to figure them out.
    However, I do wish I spoke Italian so I could know what this commercial was about.

    The engineer is coming out. Isn't this where this story started a few months ago?
    Good luck, and I wish you patience.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alessandra - I understand :) Maybe I was wrong thinking others around the world might be interested. I shall see how it goes I do have some other ideas for Fridays as well. :)

    Mya - I agree with you about the adverts but I have found watching adverts helps to improve my Italian. Maybe I should have put a better explanation in my post, sorry.
    As for the dishwasher, two engineers came on Friday morning, made some adjustments involving glue and so far so good after two months and four visits!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ciao LindyLou! I very much enjoyed your post. Thanks for the shout out. To answer you question from my blog; it's called "The Mole" (mol-ay) just because it's short for Mole Antonelliana.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Italian Postcards - It was a pleasure after all you gave me the idea :) Thanks for the answer to my question. I think Autumn has arrived in Lazio, cooler and very windy today.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it and enjoy reading them all. I now only respond to comments via email, so please make sure your comment is linked to your account, if you would like a response. Otherwise I will not be able to respond!