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Études & travaux
Dantologie savante, dantologie populaire aux XXe et XXIe siècles

“Celebrating 700 anni di Dante” : a new branding

Dario Galassini

Résumés

Cet article vise à décoder la campagne publicitaire Magnum x Dante d’Algida, lancée à l’occasion du septième centenaire de la mort de Dante, et à l’inscrire dans le panorama des publicités qui s’approprient et médiatisent Dante en tant qu’icône (soit son image, soit ses œuvres). L’analyse de la campagne se concentre sur : l’emballage, la réécriture des vers de la Comédie, les publicités télévisées, d’autres initiatives connexes.

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Notes de la rédaction

The web links illustrating this article are by nature doomed to obsolescence. However, we keep them for their archival value.
Les liens internet illustrant cet article sont voués par nature à l’obsolescence. Nous les conservons cependant pour leur valeur d’archive.
I link web che illustrano questo articolo sono per loro natura destinati all’obsolescenza. Tuttavia, li conserviamo per il loro valore d’archivio.

Texte intégral

  • 1 Manuele Gragnolati, Fabio Camilletti, and Fabian Lampart éd., Metamorphosing Dante : Appropriations (...)
  • 2 Giuseppe Sangirardi, “La ‘mondializzazione di Dante’ : linee guida per un’esplorazione.” La mondial (...)
  • 3 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death. The Imperishable Image of an Eternal Poet (...)
  • 4 This article derives from a paper I would have presented at the Dantastic ! Images and Imageries of (...)
  • 5 Federica Coluzzi, Dante Beyond Influence. Rethinking reception in Victorian literary culture, Manch (...)
  • 6 Ibid., p. 92, as Henry Clark Barlow, The Sixth Centenary Festivals of Dante Alleghieri in Florence (...)

1To assess the widespread and “haunting presence of Dante”1 is beyond the scope of any brief contribution – an initial declaration of intents would have to embrace Sangirardi’s agenda of researching on the iconic impact of the “mondializzazione di Dante”2 : that of building an overview as comprehensive as possible, even if not exhaustive, or presenting as detailed as possible a case-study, even if just exemplifying. To do so with a particular focus on the year celebrating the septuacentennial of Dante’s death appears even more ambitious, as the figure of Dante, either his image or his works, was everywhere to be found3, to the point of disillusion and of a shared feeling that Dante was way too present4. As Coluzzi shows in her recent monograph, this overreaching Dante is not a novelty in the cultural and popular panorama5 ; it is, after all, what Henry Clark Barlow already stated in his report for the sixth-centenary celebrations of Dante’s birth : “Whatever was said, or sold, or done, had a reference to Dante”6.

  • 7 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death…”, Art. Cit., p. 202-206.
  • 8 Giuseppe Sangirardi, “La ‘mondializzazione di Dante’…”, Art. Cit., p. 17.
  • 9 Ibid., p. 18.

2Barlow’s definition in 1865 can be easily applied to the past years celebrations, which not only witnessed a proliferation of scholarly and noteworthy cultural events, new publications, and moments of reflection, as well as the dissemination of online seminars and conferences that managed to account for all the sensibilities and research interests that Dante Studies entail today7, but also strengthened further Dante’s popular profile. The broad category of the popular, though, encompasses many distinctive traits, resulting in different experiences and products. Sangirardi has systematised well the ways in which Dante (or possibly any other author) can be appropriated into five fenomeni-soglia8, going from the narrowest and most traditional sphere of the text editions and translations to the most commercial and contemporary one : that of gadgets. This fifth level implicates the transformation of the text or of its author into an image incorporated in goods for mass consumption, resulting in a transfer of the “asse direttore della pratica ricettiva sul piano delle transazioni economiche e, in regime di economia globalizzata, [in] un nuovo e vertiginoso allargamento dello spazio territoriale coinvolto9.

3As Sangirardi’s empirical taxonomy proves, to examine the popular profile of Dante is not an easy task, as the approach has to properly distinguish diverse modalities and receptive positions that also evolve over the years. Then, the question should be the following : why is Dante appropriated lately in these many and not always canonical ways ? And why did the reference to the seventh centenary particularly encourage the most commercial traits of this popular Dante ?

  • 10 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : l’inferno diffondibile.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special (...)
  • 11 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 74, as in Amilcare Iannucci, éd., Dante, Cine (...)
  • 12 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 75.
  • 13 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution : de la vente de produits au management.” La mon (...)
  • 14 Ibid., p. 104-109 ; Fulvio Conti, Il Sommo italiano. Dante e l’identità della nazione, Rome : Caroc (...)
  • 15 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution…”, Art. Cit., p. 108.

4Coggeshall addresses the first question by stressing the outreaching nature of the Comedy, associating Dante’s text with the definition of “spreadable media”10 and of “producerly text”11. Despite its monumental nature, the Comedy inspires readers to creative and active participation12, always generating new appropriating practices, with particular confusion for models considered sacred and inviolable, but now increasingly perceived as familiar. Similarly, Fonio underlines that literature is less exported than other aesthetic forms because of national-linguistic confinement, and with only a few anomalies, it resists massification, especially in the case of classics13 : along with Shakespeare, one of the best exceptions is indeed Dante14. By emphasising the distinction between the first fenomeno-soglia (editions and translations) and the last (gadgets), Fonio underscores the characteristics of a massificated literary figure : “La massification décloisonne un écrivain de sa tradition nationale ou linguistique, en lui permettant d’atteindre un public qui va bien au-delà de celui des lecteurs (ou des spectateurs)”15. Certainly, only in the most successful cases, the transformation of tradition into gadgets imposes itself as a homogeneous supra-national phenomenon, working with little effort in conquering even the most exotic markets – unlike translations and re-writings, which have to adapt to different target audiences.

  • 16 Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula : la cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milan : Bompian (...)
  • 17 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution…”, Art. Cit., p. 109.
  • 18 Giuseppe Antonelli, éd., Dante. Un’epopea pop, Milan : Silvana Editoriale, 2021, p. 98, 114 ; Delio (...)
  • 19 Lino Pertile, Dante popolare, Ravenna : Longo Editore, 2021, p. 11.

5If we focus on the fenomeno-soglia of gadgets, then, it should be noted that Dante’s image is universally recognisable and recognised, as part of a shared, worldwide cultural encyclopaedia16. Its global identity is the result of a phenomenon that goes far beyond the Comedy itself, “pour englober, sur le plan de l’imaginaire, aussi celles de l’homme et du mythe qui s’est construit autour de lui”17. Over the years, the semiotic iconicity of Dante’s popular and commercial image has been both productive and successful, and, while it is true that this phenomenon has its roots in nineteenth-century appropriations18, it has to be acknowledged that this practice benefitted from an exceptional increase starting from the 2000s19.

  • 20 Fulvio Conti, Il Sommo italiano, Op. Cit., p. 13-14.

6In particular, I believe the year 2021 raised this popular Dante to unprecedented heights because of two factors, the first one being the world’s social need of cheering up right during and after the appalling times of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the previous year, Dante represented an additional objective to look forward to, a name that everyone would have known and around which to gather while appreciating and re-appropriating even his most nationalistic and collective traits : the poet represented the nation’s guide, whose legacy is deemed everlasting, the symbol of the italianità and of a shared practice of values, histories, and traditions20. Going back to Barlow’s definition, if viewed through this lens, the 2021 anniversary did not differ much from the previous centennial celebrations (1865, 1921, 1965), again accentuating the links between Dante and the nation, even if, as a peculiar characteristic of the just-ended celebrations, the seventh centenary was the first anniversary of the digital era.

  • 21 See Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland. “Social Media Dante.” Dante Futures series. YouTube, 28 Ma (...)
  • 22 These are just some examples of a presence that has already been judged as not traceable. For the f (...)
  • 23 Alessandro Baricco, The Game, Turin : Einaudi, 2018, p. 18.
  • 24 Stefano Lazzarin and Jérôme Dutel, Dante pop. La Divina Commedia nella letteratura e nella cultura (...)
  • 25 Giuseppe Antonelli, éd., Dante. Un’epopea pop, Op. Cit., p. 115.
  • 26 Alberto Casadei and Paolo Gervasi, La voce di Dante. Performance dantesche tra teatro, tv e nuovi m (...)
  • 27 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità, Op. Cit., p. 84 ; as in Gérard Genette, Palinsesti. La let (...)
  • 28 Lino Pertile, Dante popolare, Op. Cit., p. 11.

7Fostered by the entertaining and immediate communicative approach of social media21, and multiple times mirrored on disparate-sized screens and market products, in 2021 Dante’s iconicity was intensified. These many Dantes, that could be found everywhere, from football commentaries to international parade floats, from thermal experiences and asteroids to fans’ favourite TV series22, hinted at a general superficial approach that in some ways is typical of our digital times23. This contemporary Dante appears to be reduced to a name, a twisted textual echo, an image, or to be turned into a branded object, and his figure conveys a sense of familiarity that makes it part of a collective imagery’s repository totally detached from the actual consultation of his original works of art24. If on the one hand, this approach is unpopular among scholars and was much criticised even in the past25, as it encourages misreadings, accidental parodies, and sterilised appropriations, on the other hand, it enhances “un tipo di familiarità indiretta che è un elemento fondamentale della fortuna di un’opera26. Pertile, when addressing this phenomenon, stresses the dichotomy by stating that, despite going through a process of reductio27, strangely enough this popular image of Dante is still able to stimulate creativity28.

  • 29 Alberto Casadei, Dante. Storia avventurosa della Divina Commedia dalla selva oscura alla realtà aum (...)
  • 30 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death…”, Art. Cit., p. 199.

8It should then come as no surprise that this tendency of moving away from the text to the creation of something that alludes to it or is freely inspired by it, and which has been going on with strenuous conviction since the 1980s, opens up to what Casadei calls an enlarged “ambito del ‘dantesco’ […] [che] prima di tutto penetra nel territorio del pop29. In its largest meaning, this pop Dante evidently comprehends a consumer facet which was noticed in 202130 and which could ultimately be identified with the appropriation that has been made of Dante by mass media and advertisements.

  • 31 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 74.

9The state of the art on Dante and advertising has not been widely considered and developed, despite increasing attention over the years31. Reception studies have tended to privilege the more canonical enquiries on modern and contemporary literature, specifically in relation to a narrow set of names and to the creative practice of appropriations, either in prose or in poetry. Even if Dante’s influence is now studied within the extensive category of the popular, it seems that the resources to approach the subject of Dante and advertisements are few compared to what could actually be done within this particular field. One of the biggest attempts at systematising Dante’s influence on ads from the nineteenth century onwards is De Martino’s volume Dante & la pubblicità, which has the advantage of proposing a schematic yet well-documented and clear overview. Undoubtedly, a very helpful asset is offered by the Dante Today repository (Coggeshall, Saiber), which was launched in 2006 and is still active and accessible after many years of activity. In parallel, other contributions, essays, and articles, many of which have already been cited here, provide a further understanding, if partial, of the phenomenon.

10This article aims to bring a contribution in the field just outlined by analysing the case-study of what was probably one of the best pop appropriations of Dante during the centenary celebrations, namely the advertising campaign launched by Algida and entitled Magnum X Dante. Both the campaign and the products present the typical features of Sangirardi’s fifth fenomeno-soglia (gadgetisation), but we would like to stress that they do something more than the usual : they propose themselves as a new form of appropriating Dante that not only plays with the iconicity of the figure and the re-writing of parts of his monumental work, but also entails an original participatory level of the public to experience Dante with another of the five senses.

  • 32 See “Magnum Purgatorio Multipack.” Magnum Ice Cream. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, www.magnumice (...)

11The Magnum X Dante Limited Series consisted of three different ice creams, inspired by the three canticles of the Comedy. With the exception of Magnum Purgatorio, which (and apparently for no reason) is still on the market and can be purchased through its webpage32, each ice cream was conceived specifically for a season and thus made available just for a couple of months. As proof of the temporary nature of the campaign, the dedicated website is not accessible anymore, and most of the ice creams are currently out of stock. The campaign was the latest instalment of the Magnum Limited Series, and it was preceded by the Magnum Seven Deadly Sins campaign (2003), the Magnum Five Senses campaign (2005), and the Magnum Five Kisses campaign (2013), and later succeeded by the current campaign Magnum X Michelangelo (2022). It should be noted that Magnum X Dante was the first Limited Series to be expressly thought for an Italian public, thus commercialised only in Italy, as is now also happening with Magnum X Michelangelo. Another significant achievement of this campaign is that for the first time a literary figure was celebrated.

  • 33 Francesco Giorgino and Marco Francesco Mazzù. BrandTelling. Milan : EGEA, 2018, p. 12.

12With the aid of the Società Dantesca Italiana in structuring and organising it, the campaign was successfully launched by the Italian brand Algida in March 2021, possibly because March is the month of the recurring dantedì and in which Dante is said to have started his journey into the afterlife. The explicit subheading of the campaign was “Celebrating 700 anni di Dante”, its logo being the number 700 and the other words in white lettering, with delicate calligraphy, showing a catchy blend of English and Italian into what is the storytelling language of advertising33.

13Following the distinction between the three canticles, the first ice cream that was commercialised was Magnum Inferno (March and April 2021), followed by Magnum Purgatorio (May and June 2021) and Magnum Paradiso (July and August 2021). For a better understanding of the campaign scope and of its carefulness, we will now present a brief analysis of a few elements : (1) the packaging and its colours ; (2) the re-writing of some verses of the Comedy and its link with each ice creams’ flavours ; (3) the TV commercials ; (4) any other initiative related to the campaign.

1. Packaging and Colours

  • 34 Despite trying to contact Algida a few times to understand if I could reproduce images of their pro (...)

14The packaging design is practically the same for all three products : its colours reflect, to some extent, a stereotype of Dante’s standardised imagery that generically associates the Inferno with sin, the Purgatorio with rebirth, and the Paradiso with salvation. Following this line, the packaging of Magnum Inferno presents almost only shades of black and red ; Magnum Purgatorio of gold, ochre, and brown ; and Magnum Paradiso of white, pink, and purple34. Despite the fact that these combinations might seem either obvious or slightly inaccurate if referred directly to Dante’s texts, they played a key role in attracting the attention of the ordinary consumer who has an average idea or image of Dante and the Comedy and who would easily associate more or less the same colours to the canticles.

15The front of the packaging is divided in two by an oblique line running from the upper left margin to the lower right margin while not matching the corners. The line is blurred in the Magnum Inferno package (red), but bold in Magnum Purgatorio (dark brown) and in Magnum Paradiso (pink). Each ice cream’s image is presented on the right side of the packaging, of course, mirroring the palette of the packaging itself, along with some nutritional information as well as indications regarding package recycling. A circle breaks the dividing line and presents the Algida logo above a large M and the writing identifying the type of ice cream, namely the Magnum. To the left of the line, at the bottom, the name of the product is written (“Inferno”, “Purgatorio”, “Paradiso”) and an icon indicates that each pack contains three ice creams – not a numerical reference to Dante, since it is common for each pack of the newest Magnum Limited Series to come with only three ice creams. Two other very interesting elements appear in this part of the packaging, a piece of writing and an icon, but they will be analysed in the second point of this examination.

16The backgrounds are very different and once again are in line with what has already been stated : the Magnum Inferno package presents a monochrome black background with grey and bright red veining, Magnum Purgatorio an amber and brown background that recalls the flavour of the ice cream and the texture of its covering, while the Magnum Paradiso has a white background which is drawn as if many white and pink sunbeams were stemming right from the ice cream, on the right.

17The back of each package presents the ice cream’s nutritional information and ingredients and more or less the same logos that appear on the front. The only thing that considerably changes is the presence of some writing indicating the flavour of the ice cream, some lines from the respective canticles, the logo of the campaign that reads “Celebrating 700 anni di Dante”, and a QR code that unlocks a virtual reality dimension.

2. Re-writing of Verses

  • 35 Or perhaps they refer precisely to the violent and depraved nature of Dante’s Inferno by evoking lu (...)
  • 36 One might also argue the opposite (divine elation as a selective process, so less popular in the en (...)

18Before reviewing Dante’s appropriation, and the reductio and re-writing processes to which the products have been exposed, it is necessary to mention their flavours : Magnum Inferno tasted of salted dark chocolate and raspberry, Magnum Purgatorio of cookie, caramel, and pecan, while Magnum Paradiso of pistachio and white ruby chocolate. Just as the association of colours does not appear fortuitous, the same happens with the products’ flavours, which appear in line with an approximate idea of Dante’s canticles. The black and red of Magnum Inferno, together with its flavour, refer more to shared imagery of lust than to the violent and depraved nature of Dante’s Inferno35, while for the Purgatorio and the Paradiso, the respective human and celestial components are also reflected in the choices of Magnum Purgatorio and Magnum Paradiso ice creams’ flavours. This is especially true for the association of pistachio with divine elation, as the flavour has proved very popular throughout Italy in recent years36.

  • 37 For every quotation from the Comedy, see Dante Alighieri, “Inferno”, “Purgatorio”, “Paradiso”. La C (...)

19However, there are even more interesting elements to this analysis. On the front, each packaging features verses that appropriate a passage from the Comedy and re-write it in relation to the taste and ingredients of each ice cream. The catchphrase of Magnum Inferno reads “Del salato fondente, dolce amore, mi prese quel / piacer sì forte che come vedi sapor ha di lampone”, thus clearly appropriating the famous tercet from Inferno 5 in which Francesca da Rimini recalls the arising of her feeling of love for Paolo Malatesta : “Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona, / mi prese del costui piacer sì forte, / che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona” (103-105)37. Despite the fact that the Magnum writing is arranged in two lines, resulting in verses of fifteen and sixteen syllables each, we could probably organise it in three verses, as a somewhat apocryphal Dantean text, still written following the metrical, rhythmic, and stylistic rules of the Comedy, at least to the eye – a typical strategy in Dantean ads. In this way, the first verse would happen to be a hendecasyllable (“Del salato fondente, dolce amore”) and the final a dodecasyllable (“Che come vedi sapor ha di lampone”), not rhyming but in assonance, while the second would become a nine-syllable verse. The catchphrase of Magnum Purgatorio, still presented on two lines, is “Sovra candido vel di cioccolato / caramello doppio, / dorato manto / ricolmo di gelato biscottato”, which can follow the usual Dantean scansion and become a proper tercet with three perfect hendecasyllables with the first and the final verse in chain rhyme. These lines appropriate the Purgatorio’s tercet in which Beatrice makes her appearance : “Sovra candido vel cinta d’uliva / donna m’apparve, sotto verde manto / vestita di color di fiamma viva” (30.31-33). Lastly, the catchphrase of Magnum Paradiso reads Di cacao rosa disio ribelle (/) bianco e pistacchio / mio anelare. (/) Sapor che move il sole e l’altre stelle”, resulting, if articulated in three verses, in a mixture of hendecasyllables, decasyllables, and nine-syllable verses, depending on the frequency and disposition of synalephas and dialephas, synereses and diaereses. This re-writing appears as the most forced one : its prosody is not remarkable, and the full stop at the end of the hypothetical second verse breaks the rhythm with an overly long pause. The textual memory, however, is quite easy to recall, as the last sentence directly quotes the last verse of the whole poem, namely “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle"(Paradiso 33.145). With no surprise, one shall notice that all three re-writings recall some of the most famous textual episodes of the Comedy.

20Each package then presents a quotation from the Comedy on the back : Inferno 1.1-2 for Magnum Inferno, Purgatorio 1.4-5 for Magnum Purgatorio, and Paradiso 33.145 (again) for Magnum Paradiso. These verses have no real purpose other than to reinforce the campaign ties to Dante and, again, bring back to mind some of the most known verses of the Comedy.

21The last element to be analysed, which is just as interesting as the re-writing, is a small icon placed on both the front and the back of each package : the icon’s text reads, respectively, “Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso LTD EDITION” and circularly surrounds a small sketch that, on closer inspection, represents a specific locus of each canticle. For Magnum Inferno, the drawing represents the hill of Inferno 1.13-18, covered by the rays of the rising sun. In the Comedy, this element is what gives Dante the hope, the strength, and ultimately the courage to continue on his journey : it is precisely at the “Cominciare de l’erta” (Inferno 1.31) that Dante encounters the three beasts that lead him to turn again towards the place from which he had come. In Magnum Purgatorio, the sketch most probably represents the shape of Mount Purgatory, even though the seven terraces of Dante’s text do not match the eight layers of the Algida product design. Finally, Magnum Paradiso not only echoes the choice made on the front of the package with the rays of light coming out of the ice cream, but also the final visio Dei experienced by Dante (Paradiso 33.67-145), by representing a luminous point that radiates light.

3. Television Commercials

  • 38 See : “Magnum Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 1 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube (...)

22The TV spots took all the elements already mentioned and used them to create three different thirty-seconds audio-visual contents, each obviously designed to present one of the three ice creams of the advertising campaign38. The commercials share the same structure : the initial shot always frames the same woman (model Marica Ranno) walking in clothes and in a setting that reflects the atmosphere of the three canticles. In the case of Magnum Inferno, for example, the woman is dressed in black and goes through a long corridor lit up in dark red, while in the case of Magnum Purgatorio, she is dressed in an earthy-toned suit and wanders through a sandy desert with a predominance of the colour ochre. In the case of Magnum Paradiso, she is elegantly dressed in white. Unlike the two other spots, she wears very light make-up, and climbs a flight of stairs to access the roof of an aseptic building with unearthly geometries. At the second 00 :05 of each ad, the shot frames the woman approaching a sort of crypt and pressing a button with her fingers. The button’s icon is the one assigned to each of the three canticles", namely the hill, the layered mountain, or the sun. Then, the door opens, the woman enters, and the crypt turns out to be a lift. The indoor environment is aseptic and still displays the colours of each ice cream – in the centre, floating on a pedestal with the icon of the canticles, the Magnum stands. The woman grabs it, brings it to her mouth, and bites into it. The atmospheric music, which is the same in all three commercials, jumps for a moment and then immediately grows into a more decisive tune : the first bite of the ice cream not only brings pleasure, but also activates the lift, which in the case of Magnum Inferno starts going down while in the cases of Magnum Purgatorio and Paradiso goes up. From a horizontally arranged window, the woman watches the scenery outside flow by and at the second 00 :18 of each ad, a male voice recites “Magnum celebra Dante. Assaggia il nuovo Magnum”, then lists the flavour of the respective ice cream and its limited availability on the market. The ecstasy of pleasure is now irresistible, and the woman surrenders to it : the framing moves towards her eyes and passes through her gaze, opening up to the final image of the TV commercial, which sees the model floating in an empty space and, in overlay, the data of each ice cream, including their usual catchphrases.

  • 39 See “Magnum celebra la memoria dantesca in occasione del settecentesimo anniversario della morte de (...)
  • 40 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità. Bari : Levante Editori, 2013, p. 68, as in Jacques Séguéla (...)
  • 41 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 18, as in Neil Postman, “Le parabole della p (...)

23The TV spots reflect what Giorgio Nicolai, marketing director of Algida, stated in a press release at the launch of the Magnum X Dante campaign, namely that the three canticles are re-created “attraverso gli spot, mettendo al centro simboli, significati e atmosfere che richiamano l’iconicità delle tre nuove limited edition39, and does so, as expected, by means of a captivating reductio. While it is possible to recognise in this storytelling some of the elements that define the star strategy40, it is even truer that the series of spots could be interpreted through a religious reading, since “come tutte le parabole, anche essi cominciano con un concetto di peccato e proseguono con l’indicazione della via della salvezza e con la visione del paradiso41, and the framing moving towards the woman’s eyes and passing through her gaze, ultimately unlocking the final pleasure, re-enacts the moment in which Dante fixes his gaze on that of Beatrice, to avoid being blinded by the growing light of Paradise, particularly before the visio Dei.

4. Other Campaign Initiatives

  • 42 See : “Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https (...)
  • 43 See “Dante’s Live Week – Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 29 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https:/ (...)

24The outreach of the campaign also involved other artistic fields and engaged with consumers through the massive use of social media, exploited especially because of their sharing capabilities. Thanks to a partnership with the Scuderie del Quirinale, the Italian painter Roberto Ferri was commissioned to complete a work of art by Algida and created Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice, sealing the sublimation of a kiss that never happened42. Again in partnership with the Società Dantesca Italiana, towards the end of March, the brand also organised a Dante Lives Week, during which some students from drama academies in Italy were asked to interpret and recite Dante, in a way also offering an opportunity to stress the importance of theatre in a period in which the anti-Covid measures did not allow for normal performances43.

  • 44 Strangely enough, the VR was not disabled as happened to the web pages.

25Finally, as I have already mentioned, the back of each Magnum package came with a QR code which, if scanned with a smartphone, would unlock a still-accessible virtual reality44. As it happens in the TV commercials, to access the virtual reality, one must tap on the canticle’s icon. From there, by enabling access to the phone camera, the Magnum Dantean worlds disclose. The following screens read “Inizia il viaggio del piacere,” “Guardati intorno : esplora l’Inferno/il Purgatorio/il Paradiso con Magnum”, “Trova i simboli : lasciati ispirare dal piacere di un viaggio straordinario”, and finally unlock what appears to be an Instagram filter with which to photograph the surrounding reality, now perceived through the colours of the three Magnum products.

  • 45 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 27.

26What I find the most interesting about this pop and commercial appropriation of Dante is that what Magnum X Dante proposed on the occasion of the seventh centenary celebrations is more than just a gadget. It also goes beyond the standard practice of naming by which advertising usually appropriates Dante45. Through the textual appropriation and re-interpretation of some of the verses of the Comedy, and through the re-creation of the three otherworldly destinations, Algida created a new Dantean branding that led the public to experience not an ice cream named after the three canticles, but the ice cream of the canticles, summarising an entire repertoire of episodes and textual atmospheres in taste as well as in a glossy image presented with the right catchphrases and colours.

  • 46 Even if the actual taste experience could differ from this image, and one might argue that the adve (...)
  • 47 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 13.
  • 48 Tondelli, Pier Vittorio, Un weekend postmoderno : cronache dagli anni Ottanta. Milan : Bompiani, 19 (...)

27In light of this, then, the placing on the market of Magnum Inferno resulted in something like the hope at the end of the “selva oscura” (Inferno 1.2), with the small icon of the hill that referred to newfound confidence after impervious difficulties (undoubtedly those endured during the pandemic), and enriched the semantic field of love from Francesca’s discourse with that of the pleasure of gluttony raising the product to the universal flavour, the symbol of ultimate satisfaction : that of the chocolate and raspberry ice cream46. Magnum Purgatorio re-read some words from Beatrice’s first description in the Purgatorio to describe an ice cream, thus proposing the indirect association of the Magnum with the role of the guide or with undying love, while Magnum Paradiso even exaggerated in comparing the taste of the ice cream, which no one could resist as drawn to it naturally (“disio ribelle”), to the love that is the origin and movement of the whole universe – that is, for Dante, God. After all, this hyperbole is both typical of ads’ storytelling47 and also of any sunny, hot Italian summer spent at a seaside resort, where the mid-afternoon ice-cream break is experienced as a refreshing moment48.

  • 49 Ibid., p. 117.
  • 50 Ibid.
  • 51 See “Magnum Michelangelo.” Magnum X Michelangelo. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, magnumicecream.c (...)

28In his analysis of popular re-interpretations, after presenting a long list of examples of real gadgets (cups, mugs, T-shirts, etc.), Fonio investigates Dante’s appropriations in food and states that it is common that, if Dante has to be turned into something to eat, he becomes a confectionery product49. However, if compared to Fonio’s case-studies, the Algida operation is completely new, unusual, and precisely for this reason, successful : we cannot certainly ascribe it to an attempt to use Dante’s name “comme une sorte de ‘patine ancienne’ à donner au produit50, as indeed many of the cases cited by Fonio are. Moreover, the reading we propose is also the one that Algida invokes when promoting its new Magnum X Michelangelo campaign–in fact, the presentation of the new product reads as follows : “Se il viaggio Dantesco ci accompagnava nella più pura ricerca del piacere, il nuovo Magnum Michelangelo rappresenta la chiave per diventare creatori stessi del proprio piacere51.

29In conclusion, if it is true that this superficial and ubiquitous Dante is often reduced to an apparently fresh and shiny market product yet deprived of certain of his most genuine polemical and prophetic afflati, it is also true that this way of appropriating Dante opens up new avenues for colonisation of the market in respect of the massification and “mondializzazione” of a literary phenomenon that now knows no boundaries. The Comedy can be read, listened to, and looked at, but today, it can be also smelled and tasted, with a level of approximation that, although evident, can be easily set aside.

  • 52 Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula : la cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milan : Bompian (...)
  • 53 Ibid., p. 23
  • 54 Ibid., p. 88.
  • 55 Ibid., p. 69, 72.
  • 56 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 84.

30It could be fruitful to make use of the theories of artistic reception and readerly cooperation to further investigate how much Dante is actually present in these branded versions of himself and, above all, how it is understood and perceived by different publics52. Still, what remains is that an interesting new Dante emerges here, and that questioning its nature is legitimate as long as it is farsighted. This is also what Sangirardi declares in the conclusion of his essay, distinguishing between an euphoric or melancholic look at phenomena like the Magnum X Dante campaign – a double perspective that must take into account both the mercantile drift of contemporaneity and the added value of any post-modern hyper-good, a “feticcio intriso di lingua e cultura53 that confers new meanings to literary places and renews an art traditionally anchored to ancient practices with today’s tools, ultimately contributing to its survival. Coggeshall wonders whether these trivialising transformations of the poem and its author somehow threaten the fortune of the work, its legacy, or even its founding principles ; and she resolves the doubt by saying that it is precisely the Comedy itself, and perhaps also the mythicised and reduced-to-an-icon figure of Dante, that allow these processes to take place54. As every text is incomplete by nature if not actualised by readership, Coggeshall implies that “i meccanismi del poema [...] richiedono la compartecipazione del lettore55 and, because of this, whoever appropriates it, in whichever possible way, does not deprive the text of anything but actualises it and uses it to speak to and about the present. As a matter of fact, all the contemporary appropriations of Dante in advertising speak of the surviving fortune of a classic and ultimately become “un piccolo ma prezioso capitolo della fortuna letteraria moderna del sommo poeta […] [nonché] la più moderna forma di ricezione e di divulgazione dell’opera dantesca56.

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Bibliographie

Alighieri, Dante, “Inferno”, “Purgatorio”, “Paradiso”. La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata. Éd. Giorgio Petrocchi. Florence : Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1994.

Antonelli, Giuseppe, éd., Dante. Un’epopea pop. Milan : Silvana Editoriale, 2021.

Baricco, Alessandro, The Game. Turin : Einaudi, 2018.

Barlow, Henry Clark, The Sixth Centenary Festivals of Dante Alleghieri in Florence and Ravenna by A Representative. London, Edinburgh, Florence, and Turin : Williams & Norgate and Loescher, 1866.

Casadei, Alberto, Dante. Storia avventurosa della Divina Commedia dalla selva oscura alla realtà aumentata. Milan : Il Saggiatore, 2020.

Casadei, Alberto and Paolo Gervasi, La voce di Dante. Performance dantesche tra teatro, tv e nuovi media. Rome : Luca Sossella editore, 2021.

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, “Dante oggi : l’inferno diffondibile.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 73-88.

Coluzzi, Federica, Dante Beyond Influence. Rethinking reception in Victorian literary culture. Manchester : Manchester UP, 2021.

Conti, Fulvio, Il sommo italiano. Dante e l’identità della nazione.  Rome : Carocci Editore, 2021.

Cotugno, Anna Maria and Trifone Gargano. Dante pop. Romanzi, parodie, brand, canzoni. Bari : Progedit editore, 2016.

De Martino, Delio, Dante & la pubblicità. Bari : Levante Editori, 2013.

De Martino, Delio. “La Commedia come paradigma del consumatore postmoderno.” La funzione Dante e I paradigmi della modernità. Atti del XVI Conegno Internazionale della MOD. Éd. Patrizia Bertini Malgarini, Nicola Merola, and Caterina Verbaro. Pisa : Edizioni ETS, 2015, p. 767-74.

Eco, Umberto, Lector in fabula : la cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milan : Bompiani, 2010.Fonio, Filippo, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution : de la vente de produits au management.”

La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 103-30.

Genette, Gérard, Palinsesti. La letteratura al secondo grado. Turin : Einaudi, 1997.

Giorgino, Francesco and Marco Francesco Mazzù. Brandtelling. Milan : EGEA, 2018.

Gragnolati, Manuele, Fabio Camilletti, and Fabian Lampart, éd., Metamorphosing Dante : Appropriations, Manipulations, and Re-writings in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Vienna/Berlin : Turia und Kant, 2011.

Iannucci, Amilcare, éd., Dante, Cinema and Television. Toronto : Toronto UP, 2004.

Jenkins, Henry, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford, Spreadable Media : Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York : New York UP, 2013.

Lazzarin, Stefano and Jérôme Dutel, Dante pop. La Divina Commedia nella letteratura e nella cultura popolare contemporanea. Manziana : Vecchiarelli Editore, 2018.

Maselli, Matteo, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death. The Imperishable Image of an Eternal Poet.” Bibliotheca Dantesca : Journal of Dante Studies 4, 2021, p. 199-211. Web. 13 May 2022, repository.upenn.edu/bibdant/vol4/iss1/10/

Pertile, Lino, Dante popolare. Ravenna : Longo Editore, 2021.

Postman, Neil, “Le parabole della pubblicità.” Il linguaggio della pubblicità : le fantaparole. Éd. Massimo Baldini. Rome : Armando Editore, 1996, p. 173-176.

Sangirardi, Giuseppe, “La ‘mondializzazione di Dante’ : linee guida per un’esplorazione.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 11-24.

Séguéla, Jacques, Hollywood lava più bianco. Il manifesto della pubblicità spettacolo. Bologna : Lupetti Editore, 1985.

Soglia, Nunzia, “Dante testimonial pubblicitario.” La funzione Dante e I paradigmi della modernità. Atti del XVI Conegno Internazionale della MOD. Éd. Patrizia Bertini Malgarini, Nicola Merola, and Caterina Verbaro. Pisa : Edizioni ETS, 2015, p. 759-66.

Tondelli, Pier Vittorio, Un weekend postmoderno : cronache dagli anni Ottanta. Milan : Bompiani, 1990.

Sitography

ANSA. “Ecco l’asteroide ‘Divinacommedia’.” ANSA Spazio & Tecnica. 29 Jun. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, www.ansa.it/canale_scienza_tecnica/notizie/spazio_astronomia/2021/06/29/ecco-lasteroide-divinacommedia_da5dfc1c-c5f0-4f94-8194-8a6c17cceacd.html.

Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland. “Social Media Dante.” Dante Futures series. YouTube, 28 Mar. 2022. Web. 13 May 2022, youtu.be/42NoB2fXqvU.

Coggeshall, Elizabeth and Arielle Saiber, eds. “Welcome to Dante Today.” Dante Today : Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. N.d. Web. 13 May 2022, research.bowdoin.edu/dante-today.

“Dante’s Live Week – Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 29 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =zqHO9w2MvZ0.

“Grotta termale.” Grotta Giusti Thermal SPA Resort. N.d. Web. 13 May 2022, www.grottagiustispa.com/grotta-termale.

“Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =ZMYLUoJu_uM.

“Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice – Intervista a Roberto Ferri.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =gByWufi4-n4.

“Magnum celebra la memoria dantesca in occasione del settecentesimo anniversario della morte del Sommo Poeta.” Inside Marketing. 29 Jun. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.insidemarketing.it/magnumxdante-magnum-celebra-dante.

“Magnum Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 1 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =pkMhmvcNoD8.

“Magnum Paradiso.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =DYsvafHRskw.

“Magnum Purgatorio.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 May 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =ri5McQ7RvuU.

“Magnum Purgatorio Multipack.” Magnum Ice Cream. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, www.magnumicecream.com/it/prodotti/icecream-sticks/magnum-purgatorio-multipack.html

“Magnum Michelangelo.” Magnum X Michelangelo. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, magnumicecream.com/it/campaigns/MagnumXMichelangelo.html

“Tutta la verità sul (vero) pistacchio di Bronte.” La cucina italiana. 14 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/storie/luoghi/vero-pistacchio-di-bronte.

Zerocalcare. “Episodio 5.” Strappare lungo i bordi. Netflix, 17 Nov. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, www.netflix.com/ie/title/81304528.

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Notes

1 Manuele Gragnolati, Fabio Camilletti, and Fabian Lampart éd., Metamorphosing Dante : Appropriations, Manipulations, and Re-writings in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, Vienna/Berlin : Turia und Kant, 2011, p. 11.

2 Giuseppe Sangirardi, “La ‘mondializzazione di Dante’ : linee guida per un’esplorazione.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 11-24, p. 16.

3 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death. The Imperishable Image of an Eternal Poet.” Bibliotheca Dantesca : Journal of Dante Studies 4, 2021, p. 199-211. 13 May 2022, repository.upenn.edu/bibdant/vol4/iss1/10.

4 This article derives from a paper I would have presented at the Dantastic ! Images and Imageries of Dante in Pop Culture, between “sogno del Medioevo” and Consumer Society International Conference in Florence, January 2022, but which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On that occasion, I wanted to introduce the topic of this research by showing the results of a survey I had circulated during the summer of 2021 on the subject of the misinterpretation of the bolgia dantesca in a football commentary to the Italy-Austria match of the UEFA EURO 2020 Football Championship (26 June 2021). The survey was conducted by over 100 people from different age groups and socio-cultural backgrounds, and it has not been published yet. What I find more interesting, is that the answers many people gave to the fourth question (“Perché credi che i telecronisti abbiano esplicitato il riferimento a Dante ?”) stressed the sense of frustration of finding Dante everywhere around them. Out of 100 answers, 22 connected the expression to the seventh centenary, and many others underlined the fact that Dante is now part of a collective memory. Some answers read : “per l’anniversario” (2), “perché le ricorrenze per i 700 anni dalla morte di Dante lo hanno reso un riferimento pop”, “perché sanno che quest’anno almeno una volta devi citare Dante”, “perché è il settecentesimo anniversario della morte e si mette Dante dappertutto”, “per gli eventi del momento sul tema”, “perché attuale”.

5 Federica Coluzzi, Dante Beyond Influence. Rethinking reception in Victorian literary culture, Manchester : Manchester UP, 2021, p. 91.

6 Ibid., p. 92, as Henry Clark Barlow, The Sixth Centenary Festivals of Dante Alleghieri in Florence and Ravenna by A Representative, London, Edinburgh, Florence, and Turin : Williams & Norgate and Loescher, 1866, p. 7.

7 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death…”, Art. Cit., p. 202-206.

8 Giuseppe Sangirardi, “La ‘mondializzazione di Dante’…”, Art. Cit., p. 17.

9 Ibid., p. 18.

10 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : l’inferno diffondibile.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 73-88, p. 74, as in Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford, Spreadable Media : Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York : New York UP, 2013, p. 3.

11 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 74, as in Amilcare Iannucci, éd., Dante, Cinema and Television, Toronto : Toronto UP, 2004, p. 4.

12 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 75.

13 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution : de la vente de produits au management.” La mondializzazione di Dante, special issue of Italianistica : rivista di letteratura italiana 49/2, 2020, p. 103-30, p. 103.

14 Ibid., p. 104-109 ; Fulvio Conti, Il Sommo italiano. Dante e l’identità della nazione, Rome : Carocci Editore, 2021, p. 174 ; Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità, Bari : Levante Editori, 2013, p. 17.

15 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution…”, Art. Cit., p. 108.

16 Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula : la cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milan : Bompiani, 2010.

17 Filippo Fonio, “La ‘marque Dante’ et son évolution…”, Art. Cit., p. 109.

18 Giuseppe Antonelli, éd., Dante. Un’epopea pop, Milan : Silvana Editoriale, 2021, p. 98, 114 ; Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità, Op. Cit., p. 17.

19 Lino Pertile, Dante popolare, Ravenna : Longo Editore, 2021, p. 11.

20 Fulvio Conti, Il Sommo italiano, Op. Cit., p. 13-14.

21 See Centre for Dante Studies in Ireland. “Social Media Dante.” Dante Futures series. YouTube, 28 Mar. 2022. Web. 13 May 2022, youtu.be/42NoB2fXqvU

22 These are just some examples of a presence that has already been judged as not traceable. For the football commentary, see footnote 1 ; for the thermal holiday package, see “Grotta termale.” Grotta Giusti Thermal SPA Resort. N.d. Web. 13 May 2022, www.grottagiustispa.com/grotta-termale/ ; for the asteroid, see ANSA. “Ecco l’asteroide ‘Divina Commedia’.” ANSA Spazio & Tecnica 29 Jun. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, www.ansa.it/canale_scienza_tecnica/notizie/spazio_astronomia/2021/06/29/ecco-lasteroide-divinacommedia_da5dfc1c-c5f0-4f94-8194-8a6c17cceacd.html ; for the Netflix series, see Zerocalcare. “Episodio 5.” Strappare lungo i bordi. Netflix, 17 Nov. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, www.netflix.com/ie/title/81304528 – and regarding the international parade floats, I was much surprised when receiving a video from a friend in Mexico City attending the día de los muertos parade on 1 November 2021. In one of the parade floats, a huge skeleton stands out among many smaller ones, wearing the typical Dantean red cape and clothing and a laurel wreath.

23 Alessandro Baricco, The Game, Turin : Einaudi, 2018, p. 18.

24 Stefano Lazzarin and Jérôme Dutel, Dante pop. La Divina Commedia nella letteratura e nella cultura popolare contemporanea, Manziana : Vecchiarelli Editore, 2018, p. 8.

25 Giuseppe Antonelli, éd., Dante. Un’epopea pop, Op. Cit., p. 115.

26 Alberto Casadei and Paolo Gervasi, La voce di Dante. Performance dantesche tra teatro, tv e nuovi media, Rome : Luca Sossella editore, 2021, p. 7.

27 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità, Op. Cit., p. 84 ; as in Gérard Genette, Palinsesti. La letteratura al secondo grado, Turin : Einaudi, 1997, p. 272.

28 Lino Pertile, Dante popolare, Op. Cit., p. 11.

29 Alberto Casadei, Dante. Storia avventurosa della Divina Commedia dalla selva oscura alla realtà aumentata, Milan : Il Saggiatore, 2020, p. 169.

30 Matteo Maselli, “Seven Hundred Years After Dante’s Death…”, Art. Cit., p. 199.

31 Elizabeth Coggeshall, “Dante oggi : …”, Art. Cit., p. 74.

32 See “Magnum Purgatorio Multipack.” Magnum Ice Cream. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, www.magnumicecream.com/it/prodotti/icecream-sticks/magnum-purgatorio-multipack.html

33 Francesco Giorgino and Marco Francesco Mazzù. BrandTelling. Milan : EGEA, 2018, p. 12.

34 Despite trying to contact Algida a few times to understand if I could reproduce images of their products in this article without copyright infringement, I have never got a reply. Consequently, I cannot enclose any picture in this contribution, but I believe readers can easily find photographs of the products on Google Images.

35 Or perhaps they refer precisely to the violent and depraved nature of Dante’s Inferno by evoking lust and its associated punishment, as also suggested by the choice of red, which could recall blood.

36 One might also argue the opposite (divine elation as a selective process, so less popular in the end), but see “Tutta la verità sul (vero) pistacchio di Bronte”, La cucina italiana. 14 Mar. 2021, Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/storie/luoghi/vero-pistacchio-di-bronte

37 For every quotation from the Comedy, see Dante Alighieri, “Inferno”, “Purgatorio”, “Paradiso”. La Commedia secondo l’antica vulgata. Éd. Giorgio Petrocchi. Florence : Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1994.

38 See : “Magnum Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 1 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =pkMhmvcNoD8 ; “Magnum Purgatorio.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 May 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =ri5McQ7RvuU ; “Magnum Paradiso.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =DYsvafHRskw

39 See “Magnum celebra la memoria dantesca in occasione del settecentesimo anniversario della morte del Sommo Poeta.” Inside Marketing. 29 Jun. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.insidemarketing.it/magnumxdante-magnum-celebra-dante.

40 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità. Bari : Levante Editori, 2013, p. 68, as in Jacques Séguéla, Hollywood lava più bianco. Il manifesto della pubblicità spettacolo. Bologna : Lupetti Editore, 1985.

41 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 18, as in Neil Postman, “Le parabole della pubblicità.” Il linguaggio della pubblicità : le fantaparole. Éd. Massimo Baldini. Rome : Armando Editore, 1996, p. 173-176 (p. 174). 

42 See : “Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =ZMYLUoJu_uM ; “Il Bacio di Dante & Beatrice – Intervista a Roberto Ferri.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 6 Jul. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =gByWufi4-n4

43 See “Dante’s Live Week – Inferno.” Magnum X Dante. YouTube, 29 Mar. 2021. Web. 13 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v =zqHO9w2MvZ0

44 Strangely enough, the VR was not disabled as happened to the web pages.

45 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 27.

46 Even if the actual taste experience could differ from this image, and one might argue that the advertising was false – the package showing layers of fruit flavour and the interior of the ice cream presenting no layers at all.

47 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 13.

48 Tondelli, Pier Vittorio, Un weekend postmoderno : cronache dagli anni Ottanta. Milan : Bompiani, 1990, p. 110.

49 Ibid., p. 117.

50 Ibid.

51 See “Magnum Michelangelo.” Magnum X Michelangelo. Unilever, n.d. Web. 13 May 2022, magnumicecream.com/it/campaigns/MagnumXMichelangelo.html. As with Magnum X Dante, I believe this website will be taken down at the end of the campaign.

52 Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula : la cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milan : Bompiani, 2010.

53 Ibid., p. 23

54 Ibid., p. 88.

55 Ibid., p. 69, 72.

56 Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità…, Op. Cit., p. 84.

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Référence électronique

Dario Galassini, « “Celebrating 700 anni di Dante” : a new branding »Perspectives médiévales [En ligne], 44 | 2023, mis en ligne le 15 février 2023, consulté le 18 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/peme/49319 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/peme.49319

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Dario Galassini

University College Cork

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