English text below
Dear Alessandro Borghese,
After having seen a video in which you advertise Fielmann as an all “made in Italy” glasses firm, I felt the urge to write directly to you.
I need to begin with a clear statement: I have a profound respect for your professionalism and success as a Chef, and sympathy for the way you managed to get in the Italians’ life with a breeze of freshness almost cheeky: a recipe bond with music, an advice, a neverending confrontation with people and Italian companies working and leaving your own industry. You know what? I have two young children who love you and have set their own personalized block notes to vote every time mum or dad cook for them: thanks to you they now are able to recognize the quality of a dish, the colors, the perfumes and eventually give a vote to it.
Your choice to sponsor Fielmann – which obviously must have decided to select you due to your notoriety, you beautiful face with your characterizing glasses and, above all, for your standards of quality, passion and creativity which permeate your own world – is IMHO quite an unhappy decision. I’m sure you had a whole lot of reasons to get this job, but I’d like to point out some few aspects you may not had the opportunity to dwell sufficiently, not belonging, in fact, to this sector – the eyewear one – which is mine instead.
In the video we see you arriving to the Cadore valley, surrounded by the Dolomites as if you were going to shoot a 4 Restaurants episode, and we therefore sit comfortably enjoying your meditations about the “passion, creativity and manual skills” needed to create your dishes, concepts to which you have accustomed us. But unfortunately the purpose of your Ad is to transfer this whole package and, above all, the “Italian Style” concept to the entire production of Fielmann. Well, allow me to tell you straight: your Ad is misleading, because this is unfortunately not the case.
If no one else did it yet, I need to tell you that if surely the eyewear that you saw cutting, finishing by hand, treating in the sifter, getting assembled by the hands of a master artisan and eventually wearing comfortably on your nice nose is certainly an Italian production, just as cannot be said for the entire Fielmann production.
Mr De Lotto’s company (that has been producing glasses since 1938 with the mastery you recognizes in the spot), put his face in the video and hosted you to show you how that line of glasses from Fielmann is truly a made in Italy one. However he does not put his signature on every Fielmann eyewear line as you are suggesting thru the whole spot.
You, Mr. Borghese, are know as a “quality ambassador” and you should know that the quality concept always carries other fundamental concepts such as respect and honesty.
Respect for end users who listen to you and believe you, but also respect for those who are “truly Italian”, those who produce everything in Italy, respecting all the rules, paying taxes and bearing the weight of it for their whole production, and not for just a single line that sounds like a lark mirror, while all the rest of the lines are produced somewhere in foreign markets where quality standards are quite different or in any case certainly not those recognized to the Made in Italy.
The honesty to put the face on something that tells the truth: you should say “This eyewear I’m wearing, this very product, belongs to a line produced by Fielmann in Italy”, without hinting that all Fielmann’s lines are made the same way.
Did you ever step in a Fielmann store? Have you ever looked at the shop windows? Did you looked to their website? There are frames sold at 0,00€ (ZERO EURO!). And a whole eyewear collection turned at 0,00€ cost to the end customer. Can I ask you if in your opinion a job can be really valued at 0,00€? The eyewear you saw getting produced during the commercial, the company, the machinery, the specialized personnel, the raw material, all the steps taken to make that frame perfect for your nose … is it a job that can be worth 0,00€?
I understand you may have been confused, because I know the Cadore realities and I know the fascination they give off when you cross the doors of the eyewear companies. Sinking your hands in the sifter, feeling the scent of the raw materials, observing the precision and dedication that artisans put in every single gesture is a unique experience that makes you get lost and that you can’t shake off. And it is precisely for this reason that we must preserve it from mystification. I know you understand very well what I’m talking about because you’re used to recognizing those things that are truly authentic.
I leave you to your thoughts, perhaps thinking about your rightful compensation for this advertising campaign (was it 0,00€?). Or even better, trying to linking your own world, experience and culture to mine, as you tried to do with your spot, I’m inviting you to reflect on this: the dish, one of your creations that springs out from your imagination, experience, from your mastery, perhaps served in one of those starred restaurants to diners who will appreciate its scent, taste, the search for the extreme quality of the products… can it be worth of 0,00€?
I wish you a good day and great meditations worth of a full 10.
Franca