[dropcap]O[/dropcap]scar-winner Adrien Brody is back on board the Fiat icon in the new international advertising campaign celebrating its 60th anniversary.
Premiering on Tuesday, 60 years after the model was born on 4 July 1957, the campaign began with a short movie which forms the commercial of the Fiat 500 Anniversary special series.
The film is set in 60s Milan, the city par excellence for style and Italian design. The clothes of the passers-by around the Cathedral are unmistakable, as are the objects that guide the camera into the protagonist’s home: small details that take viewers straight back to the Dolce Vita years.
One of these is the record player, playing “Come prima” sung by Mario Lanza, to which Adrien Brody dozes off. After a fade to black, the protagonist leaves the house and walks past his period Fiat 500, running his eyes lovingly over its iconic silhouette. Once through the front door, he feels that something is not quite right as the 60s have turned into the present day. This contrast is the leitmotif of the film, and it also features in the meeting with the female protagonist; she is wearing a vintage dress, but drives a Fiat 500 Anniversary. The actor is struck by the lines of the car with its new Riviera Green livery, and viewers can appreciate the historical Fiat logos, the vintage 16-inch alloy wheels and the chrome plated mirror caps, while the girl takes the key from the 500 Anniversary and invites him to get in.
The two young people enjoy a day in Milan together in the new Fiat 500 Anniversary, in a mix of past and present, with a few small misunderstandings to underline the fact that they come from different eras. However, they share the same love for the Fiat 500, the icon that unites the generations with its style and timeless coolness, which celebrates its 60th birthday today. The short movie ends as Adrien Brody returns home. “See you again in the future, I hope”, he whispers. The final shot returns to the sofa and shows the actor waking up, left unsure about the distinction between past and present, and between dream and reality.
His only certainty is the 500 heritage and the 500 Anniversary, the protagonists of the campaign and icons of a timeless love story. The final comparison between the 500 and the new special series, provides the common thread between the Dolce Vita era and the present day, and is a fitting way to celebrate the birthday of the Fiat icon, “forever young” for 60 years.
