Italian Advertising Rebels Say No to Bimbos

As Italy rocks from a scandal involving a prime minister with a penchant for buxom starlets, an advertising industry group has launched an unusual campaign to fight sexism on television and billboards.

"We just go endlessly for the pretty, big-bosomed girls," sighed Massimo Guastini, head of the Italian Art Directors Club (ADCI) behind the initiative, which has gathered 200 industry backers since being launched earlier this year.

The campaign calls on advertisers to "change their means of communication so as to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes." Guastini warned the industry was "afraid" of experimenting with more innovative types of adverts.

Italy's advertising watchdog said it has seen a sharp increase in complaints. In 2010, the authority blocked 22 adverts, the majority of which had "violated the norms of decency" by playing on double-meanings.

"People can't stand the misuse of the female body in adverts any more," said advertising executive Annamaria Testa, one of the supporters of the campaign.

Testa said there was a growing air of rebellion against Italy's public objectification of women, "especially after the embarrassing episodes with our prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, surrounded by very young girls."

Guastini said: "It wasn't that long ago that Italian telephone companies were unable to envisage a campaign without the perpetual young attractive women with low-cut neck lines."

"Even though the operators were rivals, they all communicated in the same way. They've ended up changing tack," he added.

The TIM operator was forced to drop commercials in February after buyers complained that the starlet used was too vulgar, and Vodafone swapped seductive bimbos for family sketches with the Italian football champion Francesco Totti.

The trend does not seem to be universal however, as seen in pervasive adverts featuring naked women advertising showers and perfumes.

Clothes company Silvian Heach was forced to take down a particularly racy poster put up on a building overlooking a primary school courtyard.

Testa said the tide turned against the country's ingrained sexism when a million women took to the streets in February to protest that the sex scandal surrounding Berlusconi was an offence to female dignity.

"With this campaign, we are taking a strong, public stand in the face of an unsustainable situation. Advertising has a certain responsibility in terms of a country's taste, ways of living and value system," she said.

"We have to change Italy's collective culture, where women aspire to be seduced and marry a rich man," she added, referring to Berlusconi's advice to young Italian girls to better their future by finding themselves rich husbands.

When private television channels took off in Italy -- particularly those belonging to Berlusconi's Mediaset group -- a rash of scantily-clad showgirls began appearing on screens across the country and became a national fixture.

Pasquale Barbella, a professor of communication at Milan's Polidesign school, said using sex to sell was an old advertising trick used everywhere.

"But in Italy the phenomenon is greater because it is fuelled by a hedonistic, vulgar climate promoted by television," he said.