Advertising with a Capital P: a publishing project on the history of Pirelli communication
In 2018, Advertising with a Capital P, a book published by Corraini and edited by the Pirelli Foundation, with graphic design by Leftloft, was selected from the ADI Design Index 2018/2019 as a nominee for the Compasso d’Oro 2020. The book tells the story of Pirelli advertising from the 1970s to the present day, with materials such as camera-ready copy, printed advertisements, and television commercials. The first part, with some introductory essays, is followed by an illustration of Pirelli advertising campaigns in the form of archive documents. These range from social, institutional and product advertising campaigns created in the 1970s and 1980s by Centro – an interesting example of an Italian “house agency”, which took Pirelli communication from traditional graphic design to marketing-oriented strategies and global campaigns with endorsers from the worlds of cinema and sport, such as Sharon Stone, Carl Lewis, and Ronaldo. These campaigns were created by top international agencies (Young & Rubicam and Armando Testa) in the 1990s and 2000s. The photograph of Lewis in high heels, taken by Annie Leibovitz in 1994, is an indelible image in the history of visual communication and the headline “Power is Nothing without Control” became a milestone in international advertising. Still today, it is the distinctive slogan of the “Capital P”.
In 2018, Advertising with a Capital P, a book published by Corraini and edited by the Pirelli Foundation, with graphic design by Leftloft, was selected from the ADI Design Index 2018/2019 as a nominee for the Compasso d’Oro 2020. The book tells the story of Pirelli advertising from the 1970s to the present day, with materials such as camera-ready copy, printed advertisements, and television commercials. The first part, with some introductory essays, is followed by an illustration of Pirelli advertising campaigns in the form of archive documents. These range from social, institutional and product advertising campaigns created in the 1970s and 1980s by Centro – an interesting example of an Italian “house agency”, which took Pirelli communication from traditional graphic design to marketing-oriented strategies and global campaigns with endorsers from the worlds of cinema and sport, such as Sharon Stone, Carl Lewis, and Ronaldo. These campaigns were created by top international agencies (Young & Rubicam and Armando Testa) in the 1990s and 2000s. The photograph of Lewis in high heels, taken by Annie Leibovitz in 1994, is an indelible image in the history of visual communication and the headline “Power is Nothing without Control” became a milestone in international advertising. Still today, it is the distinctive slogan of the “Capital P”.
