Advertising campaign depicts Italians as mafiosi

Jack Astor's restaurant chain promotes Italian menu with "wiseguy" cartoons

Two "wiseguys", sporting stylish hats, sit in a boat. Below, their victim drowns with a weight tied to a foot. Again, the same two, wielding an enormous table knife, strike their victim from behind.
These are not scenes taken from Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990) or Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), but an advertising campaign for a restaurant chain launching a new Italian menu.
This happens here, in Ontario, Canada, in 2006. The initiative comes from the "Jack Astor's" chain, with restaurants across the GTA. In these weeks they've been launching a new menu, inspired to Italian food tradition, called Viva Italia Festival: there are dishes like Pasta fagioli soup, Insalata toscana, Mussels marinara, Seafood cannelloni, Tuscan grilled steak (possibly referring to the Fiorentina) and Swordfish piccata. Nothing strange in this: thousands of North American restaurants and chains try to imitate, with varying degrees of success, dishes from Italian cuisine.
However, the fact is that the people in charge of this campaign for the Burlington, Ontario, based company have chosen to associate - with the most trite and offensive stereotyping of Italians - spaghetti and mafia.
Italians as mafiosi, spaghetti-eaters, and - why not - even carrying a mandolin. A depiction not unlike those that - for many decades - have attacked the image of millions of immigrants who managed to have their honesty and dedication appreciated in Canada as well as in the United States.
Unfortunately, Ben Soave "sells" less than Al Capone. For instance, why mention the fact that the top levels of the RCMP include, now as in the past, Italian-Canadians? Better to rely on a stereotype that dates back to the Thirties, and is apparently still very much alive, in spite of everything.
The two drawings have appeared in numerous local publications, including the free Toronto weekly Now and the Mississauga News, over the past two weeks, raising much perplexity among the It6alian-Canadian community. One wonders what would have happened if the ads, instead of "Italian mafiosi", had depicted "Canadian Muslims".
"Personally, when I saw them," commented Professor Salvatore Bancheri, who teaches at the University of Toronto in the Department of Italian, French and German, "I was very offended. I'm a Sicilian, and I know firsthand about the stereotype 'all Sicilians are mafiosi', which is far from true. When I opened the newspaper and saw those drawings, I relived the old outrage. The same goes for many other people. I called "Jack Astor's" and they were embarrassed, apologized somewhat. But this is unacceptable."
Corriere Canadese reporters tried to contact the management of the restaurant chain, but without success.


Italian Embassy protests Jack Astor's ads
Drawings deemed offensive for thousands of Italian-Canadians

The issue of the ads with drawings of mafiosi, used by the "Jack Astor's" restaurant chain to promote a new Italian menu, has reached the diplomatic level.
The cartoonish ads depict "wiseguys" perpetrating a murder and warning customers not to make them repeat their offer.
Last Tuesday, the new Ambassador of Italy to Canada, Gabriele Sardo, intervened with a communiqué. "I'm very grateful to Corriere Canadese," reads the note that the Ambassador addressed to our daily newspaper, "for rightfully and vigorously denouncing the advertising campaign launched by the "Jack Astor's" restaurant chain. Frankly, I would have never imagined that my first occasion for writing to your newspaper would be in reaction to an advertising campaign in such poor taste, especially in a country like Canada. I would be curious to find out how many of your readers, like me, agree with Corriere Canadese on this dubious marketing initiative. Perhaps those readers will express their opinion by writing to the newspaper. Should their number be large enough, "Jack Astor's" might realize that they have not only offended thousands of their fellow Canadians of Italian origin, but also possibly lost as many prospective customers."
Such words from the Italian Ambassador leave no margin of doubt, and join the growing chorus of readers who have been calling our offices to express their dismay for the choice made by the Burlington-based chain to depict - albeit jokingly - Italians as mafiosi, professional killers who send out "warnings".
The management of "Jack Astor's" again declined to comment. Our reporters have been told that the person in charge of this advertising campaign was unavailable, and that this person would contact our offices as soon as possible.
The "mafia ads" have been published in several local papers, including Mississauga News and the free Toronto weekly Now, over the past two weeks. - A.P.


Restaurant apologizes for 'mafia' cartoons
'No intention to offend, campaign discontinued'

The "mafia cartoons" will not run any longer on any Canadian publication. The announcement came under the guise of a long letter of apologies sent to Corriere Canadese but addressing the whole Italian-Canadian community by the management of the Jack Astor's chain.
"On behalf of Jack Astor's restaurants," reads the letter, signed by George J. Kakaletris in his capacity as VP Marketing & Branding for Jack Astor's, "I wanted to apologize for our recently launched 'Viva Italia' print advertising campaign. It was never our intention to offend anyone with the print ads that were a subject of an article that appeared in your February 27th issue and we regret that we have done so. Given this, we have immediately discontinued the campaign."
"Please note that the print advertising was one component of a larger advertising campaign in which radio advertising was a key driver. Our radio ads, which are currently running on most of Toronto's leading stations, focuses on celebrating the Italian language. I wanted to write you personally," continued the letter, formally addressed to the Editor of Corriere and to the President of Multimedia Nova Corporation, "to let you know that the team and myself have the greatest respect for the Italian culture, including the strong sense of community and family many of your readers share. It is for this reason that we chose to highlight Italian cuisine and our Italian menu at Jack Astor's. I hope that you will accept my sincerest apologies. In future, we will take great care to make sure that the many positive attributes of Italian culture are emphasized in our advertising.
The "cartoons" at the core of the print advertising campaign for Jack Astor's had raised a storm of controversy and prompted many readers to call Corriere Canadese in protest, following the articles on this issue. Last Monday, the protests reached diplomatic level, with the new Italian Ambassador to Canada, Gabriele Sardo, putting pen to paper and writing a letter condemning the ads, which readers will find elsewhere on this page.
"We have to thank Corriere Canadese," commented Anthony Avola, President of the Ontario Confederation of Sicily, "for its prompt denunciation of this advertising campaign, offensive to all Italian-Canadians and even more to those of Sicilian origin, all too often targeted with unjustified accusations and unwarranted generalizations. The sad fact that the Mafia plagues Sicily does not mean that all Sicilians are mafiosi, and even less so that all Italians are. This is my opinion, the opinion of someone who, before emigrating, served in the Carabinieri, and is the son of a Carabiniere. Anyway, the fact that Jack Astor's apologized is good. It was the least they could do." - A.P.

Publication Date: 2006-03-05
Story Location: http://www.tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6038