M&C Saatchi gained the attention of passing pedestrians in Milan by creating an installation that looks like a submarine emerging in Milan’s Piazza Mercanti, crashing into a nearby motorist.
The surreal stunt was created for insurance companies Genertel IT and Europ Assistance IT as part of their “Protect Your Life” campaign. It featured a rescue team, a group of stunned sailors, and one irate Smart Car driver. To make sure the point (Which is what exactly? It’s really hard to extract from this confusing scene) was not lost on pedestrian witnesses, “a man in scuba diving gear was on hand to speak to people about the importance of safeguarding their possessions.” Because anytime people need something explained to them: bam, a man in scuba gear.
I’m a fan of good old-fashioned Italian surrealism, so I can appreciate this from that point of view. But I can’t really make much sense of it from a marketing standpoint. Protect your possessions because you never know when a submarine will emerge out of nowhere? If you can make some sense of this, let us know in the comments section.