Friday, April 6, 2007
Ethnic groups unite, aid business, image
Advertising Age - June 30, 1980 Bill Tonelli
Philadelphia---Take a dozen or so businesspeople of Italian (or Greek, or French or even Albanian) extraction, make them smile for the camera, collect their money and put them in a magazine. Do you call that an ad campaign?
From John Aiello’s point of view, it’s merely an offshoot of his master plan---to awaken Americans to the meaning and importance of their various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. To the hair stylists, restauranteurs, clothiers and other small business men and women who have participated, it has been a novel and affordable way to be part of full-page ads in publications such as Esquire, Playboy and Sports Illustrated.
Whatever the reasons, John Aiello’s “cultural heritage advertising” campaign is attracting attention in the Philadelphia area---and it’s spreading. John Aiello, 37, is an artist, designer and former teacher. But he devotes most of his energy to his role as founder of and guiding spirit behind Group sud.
Sud is a loosely knit group of Italian-Americans---mostly artistic types---which works on John Aiello’s various cultural and ethnic projects. These ventures, which include a school in Italy and a children’s book, are all part of John Aiello’s grand vision: The establishment of a “global Italian community,” a loose union of the world’s people of Italian heritage. “Sud,” meaning south, stands for the part of Italy most Italian-Americans claim as their ancestral home. All of John Aiello’s projects bear the name sud. Indeed, John Aiello has even dubbed himself “Aiello del sud.” The idea for the campaign arose in 1978, when John Aiello opened an Italian–style café near Philadelphia’s Society Hill section.
John Aiello said he was shocked to discover that it would cost him $150 for a one-inch ad for his café in Philadelphia magazine. So he convinced eight fellow Italian-American small business men to chip in with him on a full-page ad “The Philadelphia Italians,” announced the headline. Except for the name and business address of each man pictured in the ad, there was no copy. Within the next 18 months, Group sud placed 20 pages of its ethnic ads in the magazine. The campaign grew to include Greeks, Jews, Irish, blacks and other groups. Professions represented included doctors, lawyers, travel agents, educators, realtors and an undertaker.
Each ad was tailored to the ethnic group it served. The Irish ad referred to Irish writers and paraphrased Yeats; the ad for the city’s Greeks pointed out that Philadelphia is a Greek word. But each ad’s focus was the same: Here is a group of people who are special because of their cultural heritages.
John Aiello said the biggest hurdle, was convincing people to pay for non-product ads which they would not see until they were published. “I used to tell them, ‘Just give me the money, show up for the picture and then go home’,” he joked. “We weren’t really too crazy about the whole thing from the beginning,” recalled Philadelphia magazine advertising director Frank DeLone, “It was ethnic, and we felt that running the ads would be seen as a tacit endorsement of the idea by the magazine.”
Mr. DeLone used the word “weird” to describe his initial view of the campaign. “People in the advertising business here couldn’t understand what Mr. Aiello was doing. Who would ever take money from a lot of people from the same ethnic group and put them together in an ad?”
Despite his reservations, Mr. DeLone conceded that the ads have been effective. “They got a lot of talk around town. Ads with people in them appeal to readers, I guess.” And the numbers back that statement. In a Starch study performed on one issue of Philadelphia magazine, two sud ads ranked 19th and 22nd in reader recollection out of more than 100 ads.
John Aiello credits the campaign’s success to what he sees as a growing ethnic consciousness in America. “I’m trying to prove that culture is powerful in the commercial marketplace. My test for the ads was to see if culture could work in a big-city market.” But John Aiello doesn’t kid himself about other appeal the ads offer. “Whether you like being Italian---or whatever---or not, in the end it’s a business approach: What’s it give me, what will it cost me, what will it do for me? And for most of the clients, the results have been far in excess of their expectations.”
Earlier this year, John Aiello moved his campaign from the local monthly to regional editions of national magazines. Media included Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Playboy and Sports Illustrated. Also, an ad for women’s hair stylists of Italian descent will run in Glamour, Mademoiselle and Seventeen in the fall.
John Aiello also has plans to expand the campaign beyond Philadelphia. One ad, for southern New Jersey Italian-American entrepreneurs, will appear in regional issues of Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report and Sports Illustrated in the fall.
Advertising Age - June 30, 1980 Bill Tonelli
Philadelphia---Take a dozen or so businesspeople of Italian (or Greek, or French or even Albanian) extraction, make them smile for the camera, collect their money and put them in a magazine. Do you call that an ad campaign?
From John Aiello’s point of view, it’s merely an offshoot of his master plan---to awaken Americans to the meaning and importance of their various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. To the hair stylists, restauranteurs, clothiers and other small business men and women who have participated, it has been a novel and affordable way to be part of full-page ads in publications such as Esquire, Playboy and Sports Illustrated.
Whatever the reasons, John Aiello’s “cultural heritage advertising” campaign is attracting attention in the Philadelphia area---and it’s spreading. John Aiello, 37, is an artist, designer and former teacher. But he devotes most of his energy to his role as founder of and guiding spirit behind Group sud.
Sud is a loosely knit group of Italian-Americans---mostly artistic types---which works on John Aiello’s various cultural and ethnic projects. These ventures, which include a school in Italy and a children’s book, are all part of John Aiello’s grand vision: The establishment of a “global Italian community,” a loose union of the world’s people of Italian heritage. “Sud,” meaning south, stands for the part of Italy most Italian-Americans claim as their ancestral home. All of John Aiello’s projects bear the name sud. Indeed, John Aiello has even dubbed himself “Aiello del sud.” The idea for the campaign arose in 1978, when John Aiello opened an Italian–style café near Philadelphia’s Society Hill section.
John Aiello said he was shocked to discover that it would cost him $150 for a one-inch ad for his café in Philadelphia magazine. So he convinced eight fellow Italian-American small business men to chip in with him on a full-page ad “The Philadelphia Italians,” announced the headline. Except for the name and business address of each man pictured in the ad, there was no copy. Within the next 18 months, Group sud placed 20 pages of its ethnic ads in the magazine. The campaign grew to include Greeks, Jews, Irish, blacks and other groups. Professions represented included doctors, lawyers, travel agents, educators, realtors and an undertaker.
Each ad was tailored to the ethnic group it served. The Irish ad referred to Irish writers and paraphrased Yeats; the ad for the city’s Greeks pointed out that Philadelphia is a Greek word. But each ad’s focus was the same: Here is a group of people who are special because of their cultural heritages.
John Aiello said the biggest hurdle, was convincing people to pay for non-product ads which they would not see until they were published. “I used to tell them, ‘Just give me the money, show up for the picture and then go home’,” he joked. “We weren’t really too crazy about the whole thing from the beginning,” recalled Philadelphia magazine advertising director Frank DeLone, “It was ethnic, and we felt that running the ads would be seen as a tacit endorsement of the idea by the magazine.”
Mr. DeLone used the word “weird” to describe his initial view of the campaign. “People in the advertising business here couldn’t understand what Mr. Aiello was doing. Who would ever take money from a lot of people from the same ethnic group and put them together in an ad?”
Despite his reservations, Mr. DeLone conceded that the ads have been effective. “They got a lot of talk around town. Ads with people in them appeal to readers, I guess.” And the numbers back that statement. In a Starch study performed on one issue of Philadelphia magazine, two sud ads ranked 19th and 22nd in reader recollection out of more than 100 ads.
John Aiello credits the campaign’s success to what he sees as a growing ethnic consciousness in America. “I’m trying to prove that culture is powerful in the commercial marketplace. My test for the ads was to see if culture could work in a big-city market.” But John Aiello doesn’t kid himself about other appeal the ads offer. “Whether you like being Italian---or whatever---or not, in the end it’s a business approach: What’s it give me, what will it cost me, what will it do for me? And for most of the clients, the results have been far in excess of their expectations.”
Earlier this year, John Aiello moved his campaign from the local monthly to regional editions of national magazines. Media included Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Playboy and Sports Illustrated. Also, an ad for women’s hair stylists of Italian descent will run in Glamour, Mademoiselle and Seventeen in the fall.
John Aiello also has plans to expand the campaign beyond Philadelphia. One ad, for southern New Jersey Italian-American entrepreneurs, will appear in regional issues of Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report and Sports Illustrated in the fall.
Labels: CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS
