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ESPN’s Italian Promo Flames

May 15th, 2008 | By: Chris | 27 Comments »

Anybody else slightly offended by this? They’ve made no attempt at subtlety with their implications. How about showing something Italians do rather well, like hoist trophies?

And could we get at least somewhat relevant here? They’ve got ZOLA in the promo? What was his last tourny, ‘96?

Come on, ESPN, you’re better than this.

Tags: Espn, Euro 2008

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 27 comments.

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By Italy_win_euro | May 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Scum … the only thing i can think of

They never show cannavaro holding the WV trophy up ,,, but they show this

be even better once italy wins euro

Posted from Australia

By Mao Chunking | May 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

If the ad people are indeed english, and if this is an attempt at humor, then you should remember what’s funny to english people.

It’s not like people suddenly want stop being racist/prejudiced to the winners of anything, even the world cup. I think Italians know that very well. Ask the Swiss-Italians.

Posted from United States

By Chris | May 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

Actually it’s American. And given that Italian-Americans makes up a large group of immigrants or descendants of immigrants in the United States, I can’t imagine this is too smart.

By elle | May 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

thing is to the average American, they’re not going to understand the football connotation at all, but everyone here knows that Italians are known for talking with their hands, and that’s what most Americans will think its about.

By Ian Rose | May 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

I have to agree. At the very least, this is just stupid on ESPN’s part. If they were going for a “talking with their hands” connotation, they missed the mark - it really comes off as “Italy is filled with whiners and divers, PS - Watch!” And that’s not fair to the reigning World Champions. And how does Portugal get off so easy if we’re going for scathing profiles of diving and complaining?

By elle | May 15th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

it’s ESPN, of course they’re stupid. They’ve been railroading soccer in America for years. Frankly even these ads are a step up for them.

By justin | May 15th, 2008 at 10:58 pm

whatever, first time i saw it i laughed, even though there is certainly some underhanded ribbing going on…. Its true what one person said, better to get a bad ad then none at all like france…

Posted from Canada

By Marco | May 16th, 2008 at 8:59 am

I , for one, love it. The message is ; If Winning is an Art, Italians are the masters. I see it in a more positive way than the stupid Portuguese one or the Greek. It shows that even if Italians speak with their hands, (One of the only teams you can see expressing on the field) we’re still perennial winners.

Forza Italia

By Mao Chunking | May 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am

In response to “not too smart” and large number of Italian-Americans: smart’s got nuthin’ to do with it. Who’s STILL the ruling class here in the States? The sons of ex-colonialists from England.

The great writer Eduardo Galeano described these situations very well in his book El Futbol: A Sol y Ombra.

I know better than to take all this sport stuff TOO seriousl, though it is great fun to mock ESPN.

Posted from United States

By Laurie | May 16th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

If you’re going to have a stereotype, I think you could do a whole lot worse than beautiful, emotive men who win. Just sayin’.

Posted from United States

By Laurie | May 16th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

Oh, and also, regarding stereotypes. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

Posted from United States

By Pseudinho | May 17th, 2008 at 9:54 am

I think the Italians have a sense of humor. And the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously were not offended. As far as ESPN and soccer I don’t think they are trying to railroad soccer in America. They are actually going to make a bid for the Premier League rights soon. I just don’t think most big wig ESPN executives get it. When they have people who have no clue what they are talking about trying to interview Tommy Smyth, Erik Wynaldo, or Derek Rae it comes off as forced. Also I was one of those non soccer people before about ‘98 but once I understood it and realized that it really doesn’t interfere with my American sports fanhood than I was completely onboard. Most of the good matches are on during the day, because of the time difference. One more thing there s a reason they are stereotypes is because they are true.

Posted from United States

By Alessio | May 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

At least it wasn’t a video of people like Gilardino diving. I thought the video was pretty funny though…I was amused more by the talking with the hands than the “complaining” or anything.

Posted from United States

By Preeve | May 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am

Too bad the ad showed only videos from the mid-1990s, a decade really poor of trophies for the Azzurri. Some footage comes from the awful Euro 2000 final and Euro 1996, in which we were eliminated in the group stage…

Anyway, let’s just see this ad in a scaramantic way

Forza Azzurri!

By ilcapitano | May 18th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

they could have shown totti’s spitting incident…

Posted from United States

By Marc | May 18th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Hey there im a dutch football fan coming to this blog in peace… id like to know from several italian fans if they fera any opponents this summer and how far u guys think italy will go this summer? simple question to see if tehers doubt also in the italian side cuz we dutch are not very optimistic..

Posted from Switzerland

By croatia | May 18th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

itlay sucks

brazil 2

By Miguel Rosado | May 19th, 2008 at 7:44 am

Hello my Italian friends. I’m a huge supporter of Dutch football and I’ll obviously cheer for Holland this summer. Italy has everything to win the EC but what do you think about our group, who do you guys think will advance?.

By Bashar | May 20th, 2008 at 8:53 am

I think Italy will reach the semifinals at a minimum. I think they will reach the final and anything goes then. It’ll be Germany or Italy.

But given such a tough group, one mess up and it will be Netherlands and France going through.

Posted from United States

By mele419 | May 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Chris, the only thing that matters is that WE know we are the best in the world.
Who has the world cup trophy?
WE DO.
End of story.

Posted from United States

By Matthew | May 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm

It depends on how you take it in context. If you start analyzing it and putting it up for everybody to see without soccer in mind, then Chris has a very good point, It could be offensive. Whenever nationality is at hand some people will get offended while others will shrug it off.

When I first saw it I wasn’t super pleased but I wasn’t spitting at my tele I’ll tell you that much. It could have been worse and it could have been better. I think the creators wanted us to talk about it and here we are.

Posted from Canada

By max | May 24th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

croatia you suck and if you are from croatia you must not like the way we have heleped your sorryass all of these past years(see war in the past) now italy is the world champions and then soon the european champions ,after all european or world is all the same ,what do you really need to make it officila Brazil and Argentina right.
anyhow about espn its all good let them talk about it the way they see it and let us bring the cup home.
Forza Azzurri

Posted from United States

By federico | May 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

I find this hilarious. I don’t take offense to it in the least. Sure a nice shot of them holding a trophy would be nice, but we don’t have to rub it in anymore, we won. It’s humor, if you laughed the first time you saw it then you can’t take offense. After all, most things are funny…because they are TRUE! Watch it again and laugh at how funny Italian soccer players are. It is because they are treated like Americans treat movie stars.

Forza Italia!

By Abby | May 28th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

A cheap, easy shot and not very inventive.

Posted from Italy

By James | June 15th, 2008 at 3:53 am

“Who’s STILL the ruling class here in the States? The sons of ex-colonialists from England.” The “ruling class” is that with money and econmic power, regardless of where their ancestors came from. Simply because you may have English roots, though probably most are Irish not English, does not mean you are part of the ruling class unless you have money.

Posted from Canada

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