From the CBC: Raised Italian
CBC News Viewpoint | August 10, 2004

For the past several months I have endured a pain so insufferable that it can only be described as cruel and unusual punishment. This pain is caused by none other than the McCain’s “Crescendo Rising Crust Pizza” TV ads.

The ads try to emphasize the “rising” crust of the pizza by featuring kids who have been “raised” Italian. The premise: the authenticity of these Italian teens will somehow prove the “Italian-ness” of the pizza.

Even if we agree that McCain’s makes bad ads – low budget and downright annoying – these raised crust/raised Italian ads represent a new level of ridiculousness in marketing.

One ad features teens sitting around a pool, and the announcer poses a question: “So, what’s it like to be raised Italian?” None of them can put together a coherent answer. One says, “Ya know, being Italian is like…being Italian.” Another says, “It’s like the way we talk with our hands.” Oh yes, this is doing wonders for Italian stereotypes. Not to mention, wonders for the image of a high school education.

In another ad, a younger girl mimics her parents’ accents while they discuss her boy-craziness. All the while she indulges in a slice of Crescendo pizza. Perhaps I missed the part in my social studies class when they highlight the link between being boy crazy, being Italian, and eating pizza.

Frances Ciccia is a young Italian, and she doesn’t see herself reflected in the ads. “Those ads are hilarious and sad at the same time. They always show Italians as greasy, uneducated and talking with their hands – that’s not what we are. And I doubt any of those kids are Italian. Those accents and hand gestures are so fake. It’s scripted.”

Even if those actors really are Italian, I still have this question: does McCain’s really think that Canadians will believe this frozen, factory-produced pizza is going to taste like “authentic” Italian pizza? Whatever “authentic” Italian means. I’m not disputing whether the pizza tastes good – that’s not the point. The point is the ads taste bad.

“It’s easier to identify with these dumb stereotypes but there has to be a better way to sell pizza,” says Ciccia.

These ads reinforce that it’s OK to use stereotyping in advertising. But vendors beware, because you can only make fun of certain communities. And Italians get the worst of it, I’d say, though the Scottish get their fair share, too. I’ve seen Scots screaming about everything from beer to money lending to snack bars. And in the United States, they hold a special place for Mexicans in marketing. I like to call it the “sombrero factor.”

Some may argue that this is a technique to target particular customers. That’s possible. I worked in advertising and we regularly designed ads featuring the ethnic groups that we hoped would buy our client’s products. So, maybe McCain’s is trying to reach out to Italian consumers.

“Do you really think that McCain’s is advertising to Italians with those ads?” asks Rocco Galati, a prominent civil liberties lawyer. Galati says McCain’s is advertising to mainstream Canadians and feeding them a fictional idea of Italians to entertain them. He says, “This is the equivalent of 1960s western movies when white actors put on brown makeup to be Indians.”

He says that being Italian shouldn’t always be equated with pizza. “In my 38 years in Canada, my mother has never made a pizza at home. I’ve never made a pizza at home. Sure, I’ve eaten pizza but it’s not as prevalent to our culture as people think. ‘Italians are pizza’ – that’s what these ads are trying to say.”

But not everyone says the Crescendo ads are all bad. Jason Sordi is the Toronto district president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians. Sordi says that while he’s not jumping up and down for these ads, he’s certainly not complaining.

“For once it’s a positive ad. It’s not mafia-related and it’s not an old grandma wearing black.”

Sordi goes on to say, “Most commercials aren’t very high-brow or intellectual, and given the media’s track record with advertising, this is a step in the right direction. At least this doesn’t associate us solely with Italian organized crime.” Sordi is referring to the ads for Delicio pizza where mob bosses threaten one another in a dispute over pizza delivery. Sordi finds those ads much more damaging, and he’s tired of seeing Italians portrayed in the mafia cliché.

Galati agrees that while the Crescendo ads are dumb and annoying, it’s the Delicio ads that are hurtful. “Those ads are really offensive, they’re criminal. It’s hate propaganda.”

I asked them both if the Italian community has done anything to stop either set of ads. Galati says no. “Most Italians find them offensive, but they laugh it off because it’s just racist foolishness. Italians don’t whine about racism because we don’t expect much to change. It’s a disservice to our community but we don’t waste our time. It may not be the right attitude but it is the prevalent one.”

Sordi explains further, “We haven’t been as forceful as other communities in lobbying against stereotyping. Some people are desensitized to the fact that Italians are even being stereotyped.” Part of the problem, Sordi says, is that Italians themselves are desensitized. “We’ve become so accustomed to the stereotyping that we don’t notice it as much anymore.”

But Sordi says things are changing. As Italians become increasingly part of Canadian mainstream culture he believes advertisers will stop typecasting them.

Whether it’s the irritating suggestions about talking with their hands or tired portraits of Italian mobsters – Italians are still treated like court jesters in North American culture. I agree with Sordi that things are getting better but people must realize that their need to reinforce romantic delusions about Italians is diminishing people’s individuality.

But until then, McCain’s will continue telling us what it’s like to be raised Italian. And I’ll keep praying that McCain’s doesn’t get into the falafel or somosa business.