In 2022, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Turin received from the Centro Studi Piero Ginocchi of Crodo about 200 adverts made in the 1950s and 1960s to promote the well-known non-alcoholic beverage Crodino. After the efforts of volunteers at the Centro Studi saved the commercials from certain destruction, the Museum decided to begin mapping the acquisition, in order to identify the characteristics and history of each film. Among the various materials are adverts made by several production companies and involving people and production entities such as Gamma Film, which was founded by Luigi and Roberto Gavioli, who are among the principal Italian animators of the postwar period. Their meeting with the Parma entrepreneur Piero Ginocchi, inventor of the “light, non-alcoholic drink with a refined flavour”, resulted in dozens of adverts that allowed Crodino to achieve significant commercial success. Gamma Film decided to alternate between animation and live action, relying on the face, voice, and interpretive skills of Brigitte Bardot. In the various rediscovered and restored adverts, the actress never holds a bottle. Her status as a sex symbol, thanks to her role in And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956), created sufficient discontent among Catholics that SACIS – Rai’s advertising arm – forbid the use of such an image. The solution? Place the product in the less naughty hands of a common consumer.

Gabriele Angelo Perrone and Ludovica Posti