Is advertising attracting talent? The Italian Syndrome.

  By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc  / LMMiami.com

  • Last week I laid out the following theory: younger generations and, hence, fresh talent, simply don’t want to work in advertising anymore.
  • If you are young and bright these days, Silicon Valley’s gravitational pull is way stronger than Madison Avenue’s.
  • The ad world might be experiencing the “Italian Syndrome”.
  • See, Italy, a country whose creative credentials are second to none, is the opposite of an advertising powerhouse.
  • Italy is notorious for its lack of presence in the creative award circuit.
  • How come?
  • This is a culture with over two millennia of vibrant cultural output.
  • Art, literature, music, film, architecture.  
  • A global dynamo of industrial design, interior décor, furniture, home appliances and assorted consumer packaged goods.
  • The birthplace of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati, Riva, Beretta, Valentino, Armani, Prada, Gucci, Versace, Benetton, Ferragamo, etc, etc, etc.
  • Buitoni, Barilla, Nutella, Lavazza, Segafredo, Campari, Cinzano, etc, etc, etc.
  • From cars to coffeemakers, from powerboats to firearms.
  • A “Made in Italy” tag on a garment or foodstuff is marketing gold.
  • I’d dare say no other country in the world boasts Italy’s ability to “create brands” that manage to be both aspirational and populist (if you work in the marketing biz you know full well that this is an extremely difficult balancing act to pull off).
  • Yet its advertising creativity is non-existent: why?
  • I’ll tell you why: in a culture with such high regard for REAL creativity, writing slogans for laundry detergent is little less than insulting.
  • In Italy, nobody who considers him or herself a creative person with entrepreneurial spirit would even think of becoming an advertising creative.
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