“PUBLICITY WITH A CAPITAL ‘P’”: THE HISTORY OF PIRELLI ADVERTISING FROM THE 1970s TO THE 2000s, IN A SINGLE VOLUME

TOMORROW EVENING’S PRESENTATION AT THE TEATRO FRANCO PARENTI WILL ALSO INCLUDE A DISPLAY OF THE MOST NOTEWORTHY ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE BOOK

A DEDICATED WEB SITE WILL GIVE ACCESS TO A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF ADVERTISING MATERIALS AND OTHER EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

A collection of 800 images takes us back over the history of Pirelli advertising from the 1970s to the 2000s, retracing the evolution of its strategies, techniques and forms. This is Publicity with a Capital ‘P’, the new book published by Corraini Edizioni and edited by the Pirelli Foundation. The book follows on from A Muse in the Wheels. Pirelli: A Century of Art at the Service of its Products, which looked at the first century of the company’s life (1872-1972). The book – which is available in Italian and English – will be presented tomorrow at 7 p.m. at an event at the Teatro Franco Parenti. The speakers will be Marco Tronchetti Provera, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Pirelli and President of the Pirelli Foundation, Carlo Bonomi, President of Assolombarda, Paola Dubini, Lecturer at Bocconi University in Milan, Vicky Gitto, Chief Creative Officer of Young & Rubicam, Aldo Grasso, Lecturer at the Università Cattolica of Milan and television critic, and Antonio Calabrò, Managing Director and Director of the Pirelli Foundation. A selection of the materials published in the book will be put on display in the foyer of the Teatro Franco Parenti in the days following the event. In its 448 pages, the book offers an overview of how advertising evolved from the analogue era to the digital, and of the leading role played by Pirelli with its commercials, forever etched in memory. With 140 cars forming the famous Long P and seen from a height of 85 metres, the “Pneumatici con la P maiuscola” (1978) television commercial, which inspired the title of the book, was an extraordinary feat in a pre-digital world. And then there was the “Pirellibility” (1981) spot, one of the first experiments in entirely digital advertising. In particular, the history of the 1970s and ’80s can be seen in the works made by the Pirelli Group’s Agenzia Centro. This was a fine example of an Italian house agency, and it conveyed Pirelli communication from the tradition of graphic design – with such great Italian and international names as Pino Tovaglia, Salvatore Gregorietti, Derek Forsyth, Gerhard Forster and François Robert – to a world of marketing-oriented strategies. The 1990s were the years of the great international agencies, which created global campaigns with celebrity endorsers from the world of cinema and sport, ranging from Sharon Stone through to Carl Lewis and Ronaldo. The photo of Carl Lewis wearing high-heeled shoes, taken by Annie Leibovitz – more than once also the creator of the Pirelli Calendar – and the slogan “Power is Nothing without Control” of 1994 have become milestones in the history of advertising. The reader is accompanied through the advertising of Pirelli, which has long been one of the most innovative companies in terms of communication, by the introductory essays by Antonio Calabrò, who puts the history of Pirelli’s communication into its international political and economic context, and by Paola Dubini, lecturer at the Bocconi University of Milan, on the evolution of advertising in Italy and the world. These are followed by essays by Carlo Vinti (University of Camerino) and Michele Galluzzo (IUAV University of Venice), which examine how the Group’s advertising techniques and forms have changed over the years. A reflection on the concept of corporate image is entrusted to Giancarlo Rocco di Torrepadula, Director of External Relations at Pirelli in the 1990s. Also the central section is full of treasures, with the advertising campaigns divided into institutional communication, social communication and product campaigns, with a particular focus on tyres. The book, which will also be available as an e-book, has its own website (advbook.fondazionepirelli.org) and a web app, accessible via QR code. The app contains a host of audio-visual advertisements (from the Carosello programme in the early seventies to the special effects used in the commercials with Carl Lewis and Ronaldo in the nineties, through to the “Wild” spot, with top Hollywood names). It also includes additional advertising materials (camera-ready copies and prints), descriptions of the restoration operations and much more special content, which will be made available as the work of the Pirelli Foundation progresses. The Pirelli Foundation Set up in 2009, the Foundation’s activities include the conservation and promotion of the Pirelli Historical Archive: over 3.5 km of records on the history of Pirelli from its foundation in 1872 to the present day. A key role in this extraordinary cultural and artistic heritage is played by the section on communication, which illustrates Pirelli’s highly rewarding collaboration with intellectuals, artists and photographers, and the company’s tendency to anticipate the forms and instruments of communication. These range from design to photography, and from the first experiments with computer graphics to the latest digital techniques. The Historical Archive also contains the private archive of the Pirelli family, a technical and scientific library with over 16,000 volumes and many house organs and magazines, including a complete collection of Pirelli. Rivista di Informazione e di tecnica. In a clear indication of the value that the Pirelli Archive has for the community, the Soprintendenza Archivistica proclaimed its historic interest back in 1972, placing it under its own protection.   PDF Version (150 KB)