FLORENCE, ITALY – Italy is making waves by turning stereotypes on their head — and selling the world its more serious side.
A country of pizza makers? Look instead at Italy’s 1,000 major infrastructure projects in 90 countries, a new promotional video suggests. The land of Latin lovers? Don’t forget Italy’s huge trade surplus in manufactured goods. A nation of happy-go-lucky children? Think again, the advertisement says: Italy was the world’s third country to launch a satellite into orbit.
People here are reacting with surprise at the possibility that Italy may have finally figured out how to market itself abroad — by acknowledging stereotypes only to show a different “Made in Italy” that Italians can be proud of.
The ministry of economic development debuted the video “Italy, the Extraordinary Commonplace” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It’s now one of the most clicked video broadcasted by a government in the world.
