Wednesday, September 08, 2010

I Don't Speak Italian

I love Alfa Romeo cars. I don't drive and I still want a Brera, or an 8C, or even a MiTo. So I am a little disappointed to see the latest ad leave me scratching my head when behind it there is clearly lots of potential.

The new ad for the Giulietta, just what in the name of Fiat does "I am such stuff that dreams are made on" mean?! Well, I can guess what it means, but it just does not read properly. It feels like bad translation done at a bargain price.

The Giuletta is one stunning looking car, and Uma Thurman isn't bad either; but the line is SO clunky and SO distracting that you miss the rest of the ad in the confusion.

I like the other line. Frankly "Without heart we would be mere machines" is a perfect encapsulation of what Alfa Romeo is and stands for. You buy an Alfa because of the way it looks and feels, not for any rational product benefit, except... it follows an ad talking about rational features... *sigh*.

WHACK. Ohhh. It's Shakespeare. Yep, after a day or two when you realise the line comes from the overrated* Bard, it helps. The ad makes more sense, it stops feeling like a bad translation. Yet I wonder just how many people will get the reference... though I imagine Alfa buyers would be most likely to, so maybe it's fine.

Personally though. Alfa could run a 90 second ad showing their MD counting his money as long as they continue to look and feel the way they do. Be. You. Tiful.

*Don't get me started on this...

2 comments:

Northern said...

Tell me, exactly how is Shakespeare overrated? I expect crystal clear and supportable evidence

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

Firstly I will add that any literary critique is purely the opinion of the person at hand... :D

My problem with Shakespeare is less so much the quality of the work, which I think in most cases is undeniable; and more to do with the way our education system is geared up to sell us the Bard in a way that idolises him and sucks up to him worse than a 16 year old Justin Bieber fan.

It's the same kind of system that causes people to spend hours staring at the Mona Lisa and miss other works that are clever, better technically and of more impressive scale or thought.

I would never say that Shakespeare is bad. I have never found any of his work to be a bad piece of work. But is he overrated by our school system and by people who think reading Romeo and Juliet in school makes them entitled literary commentators... hell yes.