It’s not just an advertisement. The new Poste Italiane commercial builds a small generational story capable of speaking to students, parents and teachers and exciting everyone. The campaign dedicated to the new App P, which brings together postal, financial and payment services in a single digital platform, once again chooses the path of “Italian Stories”, but this time it focuses everything on the human value of school and on dreams left pending. What gives rhythm to the images is Night before exams by Antonello Venditti, one of the most recognizable Italian songs when it comes to adolescence, fears and the future but above all about high school exams. And precisely that music becomes the emotional thread that accompanies every scene of the commercial.
Piero, the janitor who returns to do his high school diploma
The heart of the advertisement is Piero, the school janitor (technically school assistant), played by the actor Luca Cuzzolino. He is not a simple extra: he is the soul of the institute, the familiar face who knows all the students, encourages them, jokes with them in the corridors and accompanies them in the most tense days before the exams. At the beginning we see him go into the post office to collect the books he needs to study.
Then, scene after scene, we suddenly discover that he too is preparing for graduation. A detail that completely changes the perspective of the commercial: no longer just kids struggling with the final exam, but an adult man who decides to get back into the game. Simone Godano’s direction avoids rhetoric and focuses on everyday details: the knowing glances in the corridors, the piles of books, the nights spent studying, the sincere affection of the students towards that ever-present janitor.
The ending that overturns everything and moves the audience
The strongest scene comes in the finale. While reciting the verse of the song “maturity I had taken you earlier but with the still desire to change“, Piero enters the oral exam room in a suit and tie. It is the moment in which the advert stops being nostalgia and becomes personal redemption. Immediately after comes another twist: the collection that the students kept asking for was not intended for their graduation trip, but precisely for him to give him the opportunity to take a trip to celebrate the goal achieved. When Piero replies that he will book the passport, the entire class explodes in liberating applause which closes the advert with one of the most powerful images of the campaign.
An accessible advertisement too
The campaign, created by SuperHumans and produced by Greenland, is broadcast on TV in 60 and 20 second formats, but also online, on social media and in post offices. It is also available in an accessible version, with subtitles and audio description, a choice that further broadens the inclusive message of the advertising. And perhaps this is precisely the most successful detail: remembering that there is no right age to get back into the game.
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