Open to Meraviglia campaign comes under investigation

Do you remember the controversial €9 million campaign devised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Enit to promote Italy worldwide, featuring a "yassified" version of Botticelli's Venus? Well, according to what Repubblica writes, the prosecutor's office of the Court of Auditors in Lazio has initiated an investigation into the promotional campaign Open to Meraviglia. The accusation is one of misappropriation, that is, the waste of public money invested in a communication operation that was prematurely terminated. Presented on April 21st, as stated by Minister Daniela Santanchè, Open to Meraviglia envisioned a promotional video broadcasted on trains, planes, Rai and Netflix networks, a series of visuals for billboards, as well as a specific Instagram profile, @venereitalia23. However, the activities planned for the campaign were interrupted much earlier than expected, at the end of June, and the campaign's introductory video has disappeared.

Ilpost underscores the fact that  «The last post on the Instagram profile of the campaign is from June 27th, while the Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok profiles are no longer available. On YouTube, the presentation video of the campaign, which, according to Repubblica, cost 138,000 euros, two thousand euros less than the threshold requiring a public tender, has been deleted. As for the rest, it is known that the signage featuring Venus was actually set up in some airports outside of Italy and that on April 22nd, the Ministry of Tourism's YouTube profile published a spot (which currently has 41 views) in collaboration with the Italian Volleyball Federation, in which the national team athletes posed with the campaign's Venus on their shirts.»

The marketing operation was strongly advocated by the Minister of Tourism, who, perhaps mindful of the social attention that Chiara Ferragni had garnered during her visit to the Uffizi in 2020, had decided to transform a 15th-century painting into an influencer. However, from the outset, the initiative sparked controversy, to the extent that the advertising agency Testa felt the need to defend itself from the numerous criticisms for a campaign that resembled more of a meme than a governmental initiative. «Armando Testa is thankful, and Venus is with us. It's been over 500 years since she was talked about this much. If this isn't wonder, what is?» Testa had declared to Corriere della Sera, probably echoing the motto "all publicity is good publicity." The Ministry of Tourism, contacted by Repubblica, reportedly commented on the Court of Auditors' accusations, stating that the agreement with Armando Testa is still ongoing, referring to it as a "thoughtful choice" to drive traffic to the website Italia.it, where there are indeed some pages related to tourist activities updated in July and August. The Ministry added that Venus will "soon be in the spotlight" again. If not, "Open to Meraviglia" could prove to be a costly and monumental mistake for the Meloni Government.

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