We all got a bit of a break from the tourist/cultural sites and we had two media visits back to back. Early this morning we went to Burson & Marsteller. I could tell that they were all really excited for us to be there because they planned five different lectures for us. The CEO, Fabio Caporizzi, brought up a lot of good points about the differences between American advertising and Italian. He made sure throughout that we had a good understanding of the company. He brought up other people like Luca Vergani and Elena Silva to give us lectures about their jobs and what all it takes to be an advertising agency in Italy.
My favorite part of the visit was the last lecture which was the creative director, Sergio Rodriguez. He came in and gave a sample of “Campari”, a so-called famous liquor. We found out later that you are not supposed to drink it straight and that’s why it tasted like a cough medicine made from tree bark. Burson & Marsteller have a really cool ad campaign for Campari with the use of short film and the color red. They have a series of films about the mysterious “Red Hand” that later was defined as the best bartenders in the world.
Fabio was nice enough to treat us all to lunch and then after we made the track by public bus and tram to the Ria TV studio. Anna met us at Ria, the journalist who came to Point Park to visit our class several times while she was in Pittsburgh. Everyone at Ria was extremely welcoming and really went out of their way to make it a memorable experience.
We toured the Ria studios and radio broadcasting facilities with Michela Panella Zennaro and Emilio Fabrizio Ratti. I was surprised that they still used actual people to control the cameras and floor directors. I loved this visit because of the positivity you could see from everyone working there. At the end of the visit, we all were handed out certificates with our names so that we could remember our visit there.
After Ria, Taylor and I went on an adventure to the Sri Lankan store because I really wanted to get something for my boyfriend. Not long after it began to ran but thanks to Serena’s directions, we made it back to the hotel using the bus, and we didn’t get lost!
Some of us decided that we wanted to try something different for dinner so we ended up going to an Irish Pub a few blocks away from our hotel. I had the “Manzo Classico” which was a huge burger with egg and bacon on it served with delicious fries.
Not looking forward to the last day of the trip. 🙁