Some places simply exist on another plane. The people who live there move at a different pace, and therefore have a different way of understanding and seeing things. Venice is one of them, as are the Venetians, who have lived on water for centuries, using vaporetti and their own boats to move from one part of the city to another, and in doing so have adapted their minds to a condition found nowhere else on the planet. Inevitably, then, even the most universal events rest on different foundations here, shaped by customs that belong to the place alone. Take football: to follow Venezia, unlike supporters of any other team, fans cannot reach the stadium by car. They can take a boat, naturally, or they can walk. And so, over time, among the so called arancioneroverdi – the colours of Venezia FC, themselves unique in Italian football – a genuine ritual of identity has emerged: the walk towards the island of Sant’Elena, towards the Pier Luigi Penzo stadium, a kind of pagan procession leading to the match. It is a journey made in stages and therefore a slow one, or at least one that cannot really be hurried, much like so many things that happen in Venice. Football support has always been a generator and gathering point for rituals. It happens everywhere, and it happens in Venice too. But here, as we have said, people have their own rhythms and their own way of living, theirs alone. The walk to the Penzo has therefore also become an opportunity to meet friends along the streets leading to the ground, to stop for an aperitivo – another ritual woven into the identity of Venetians – before making it to the stands. One last Cynar Spritz before turning to the match.
That is precisely the essence of the new campaign launched by Venezia FC and its main sponsor, Cynar: the brand famous for its iconic artichoke aperitivo wanted to celebrate the walk made by the arancioneroverde crowd towards the Penzo. The film, set along the streets leading to the stadium on Sant’Elena, captures the sensations experienced by Venezia supporters before home games: club colours on flags lifted by the wind, chants rising through calli and bacari, gondoliers in black-and-white horizontal stripes, groups of friends meeting and greeting one another, smiles over a Cynar Spritz before disappearing into the atmosphere of the match. It is all very Venetian, and therefore unmistakable. So too is the touch of Mattia Giuman, who became famous on social media for an elegant flying backheel while steering his gondola through the canals, and who does more or less the same thing in the Cynar Spritz X Venezia FC film:
The campaign was officially launched at the start of the season, but it goes beyond the Venetian setting, taking up a theme that could be considered universal: the need to adopt a different attitude towards the wear and tear of modern life. The words, naturally, are no accident. Cynar became famous for its products, certainly, but also for launching “Contro il logorio della vita moderna” (“against the wear and tear of modern life”), one of the most famous slogans in the history of Italian advertising. The claim was also revived for the brand’s latest communications campaign, built around the idea of answering the frenzy of contemporary life with a more detached, more relaxed approach. More slowly, too. In this sense, the project created by Venezia FC and Cynar can be seen as a spin-off from that first campaign: in the lagoon city, and for the arancioneroverdi, football is experienced as a vehicle for representation and therefore identity, but also as an opportunity to relax, to have fun, as a chance to meet that extends beyond the match itself. The two things do not collide; if anything, they overlap. In the name of slower rhythms, perhaps even more human ones. In Venice, then, football can become an antidote to the wear and tear of modern life. Best sipped slowly, naturally.
The protagonist of the “Contro il logorio della vita moderna” campaign wandered through an unnamed city, somewhere other than Venice, smiling as the people around him were caught up in traffic, the problems of their work and the pressures of everyday life. His answer to all of this was found in calm, in tranquillity, in a smiling and therefore positive attitude, in a good deed, in buying a bunch of artichokes to take as a gift on a date. In Venice, the same idea changes setting – because, let us say it again, Venice is unique – and takes on arancioneroverde colours, bringing together the values shared by Cynar, the lagoon city and, naturally, Venezia FC. Values that also define the local community, deeply attached to its team, its history and its traditions. Including the aperitivo.
To accompany the launch of the campaign, Venezia FC and Cynar have built a rich programme of activations across the city. So far, two key moments have already taken place, or at least been announced: a choreography at the Penzo to celebrate the return to Serie A, and the presentation of the club’s third kit during the Venice Film Festival, which will be held at the Lido from 2 to 12 September.