A partnership with the historical archives of Italy’s most prominent companies has produced “Posters by major Italian companies”, a special publishing initiative by the Mondadori Group for collectors of timeless treasures of the art of advertising.

The initiative involves a number of Italy’s biggest and best-known historic brands – Barilla, Manetti & Roberts, Martini, Pavesi, Pirelli, Olivetti, Ducati, Fabbri 1905, Voiello – bringing back ten unique vintage advertising posters of great artistic and cultural value that made their mark on the advertising scene between the Thirties and the Nineties.

Starting this week, selected points of sale will offer fans of vintage collectors’ items a limited edition of the first five items in the series:

• “Notte di Stelline” (“Starry Nights”), a poster from the historic wall calendar designed by Adolfo Busi in 1931 for Barilla, the company founded by Pietro Barilla 145 years ago. In the illustration, chubby, lively children play with pasta of different shapes, demonstrating that pasta is good for you and gives you lots of energy, in an indirect response to the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking and its call to abolish pasta.
• “Venere moderna” (“Modern Venus”), an iconic advertising poster published by Manetti & Roberts. Designed in the Thirties by an artist from Puglia, Gino Boccasile, it is inspired by the maternal elegance of the archetypal figure of woman at the time, portraying a child playfully sprinkling the “Modern Venus” with talcum powder.
• “Jockey”, a work Martini commissioned of French painter Jean Droit in 1948. With a great focus on detail and bold expressive power, Jockey metaphorically recalls a horse race in which jockeys ride vermouth bottles: the Martini bottle is in the lead, while the other two lag behind in the background.
• “Bambino con i Pavesini” (“Baby with Pavesini biscuits”), designed by Gian Carlo Rossetti in 1961, brings back the timeless image of the Pavesini baby, a representation that was repeatedly brought back and updated over the years to suggest that Pavesini biscuits are nutritious and appropriate for even the smallest children.
• “Pirelli BELTED tyre”, a 1961 advertising poster designed for Pirelli by Riccardo Manzi. The artist designed book covers and advertisements in his humorous style, bringing a note of colour and merriment to the graphics in this poster popularising an essential product: reinforced tyres guaranteeing perfect safety at the wheel, paradoxically and ironically suggesting they are safe even if the driver can’t see properly.

The second limited edition collection will be available at selected points of sale starting on 17 November:

• “Vera pasta all’uovo” (“Real egg pasta”), an illustration depicting the emblematic Cubist chicken in support of the quality of Barilla pasta, produced in 1954 by Erberto Carboni, the great graphic artist and coordinator of the company’s image. The poster is a true homage to the quality of raw materials.
• “Tetractys”, an advertising poster created in 1956 by Giovanni Pintori, the designer whose original graphic works made Olivetti products known and recognised the world over. The tree-like portrayal of Tetractys underlines the proliferative potential of the Olivetti computer.
• Ducati 916, a true work of art in motion created in 1993 by designer Massimo Tamburini, incarnates the essential values of Ducati: Style, Sophistication and Performance. Probably the most iconic of all the motorcycle manufacturer’s models, the Ducati 916 offers an all-new synthesis of technology and design; its tempered headlights, in the middle of the poster, mesmerised the world in the Nineties.
• “Brezza che ristora” (“Refreshing breeze”), an advertising poster from the Forties for Amarena Fabbri (Fabbri 1905): an invitation to face the summer heat with Fabbri, renowned for its historic ties with the world of advertising – with Carosello and Fabbri telling the story of “a painter a week – Renato Gottuso” – and the world of art, with the Fabbri Award for Art.
• The print by Voiello – main sponsor of “Procida Italian Cultural Capital 2022” – dates back to the second decade of the twentieth century. The unknown artist offers an allegorical representation of Mediterranean identity and the city of Naples – underlining the company’s ties with the area – conveying a message about the Italian identity and quality of the ingredients and the production process.

The posters – available at the news-stand in specially designed display units emphasising their unique qualities – are sold with an exclusive booklet providing information in which collectors can find out all about the history of the product, the artists, the companies and much more.

The ten advertising posters are available in the best news-stands and supermarkets at a price of € 8.90 each.