Today we had two media visits, one to Burson-Marsteller, an advertising agency, and one to the production center of Rai Milan.
At Burson-Marsteller we learned how Italy is trying to compete on an international level, and how that can be a challenge. Italians are hesitant to change, and their different regions are all so different even though they’re very close.
Then an advertiser for a liqueur called Campari went up to speak. Before he showed us anything, he offered us all a drink of Campari. It was bright red and looked like fruit punch. I was still sick and couldn’t smell, so I had no idea what was coming. The drink was incredibly bitter. Nobody in our group liked it, and most of us politely hid the still full cups under our seats. The spokesperson showed us all of the work he did for the brand, and even showed us a short video he did for Campari.
We then went to the Rai production center. They gave us a tour of the inside, and and we got to see the different production studios. In Italy, Rai is a public service. They are funded by a tax that Italian citizens pay.
Rai was started in 1954, and was only made up of one radio and one TV channel. There are now 17 TV channels, 10 radio channels, and three internet channels.
Rai’s board of directors is made up of seven members, four of which are elected by Parliament, two are designated by the government, and one is appointed by Rai employees. I didn’t find this surprising since I learned in Rome that much of Italy’s media is owned by corporations and politicians. I was a little surprised at just how much power the government had over Rai, the one appointment to the board by Rai employees was only a recent development. It was explained that the government can tell them what to do, but not how to do it. This, to me, still felt like the government still had too much power over the media.
After, a small group of us went to dinner in an Irish pub. It was thunder storming and we were exhausted from our eight hours of media visits, so we caved and got burgers at an Irish pub.