Italy: ‘Virtual influencer’ Venus is 2023’s cringiest tourism campaign

Rome: Italy’s Ministry of Tourism has brought Venus Anadyomene from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to life as a 30-year-old Instagram travel blogger touring Italy’s ‘most fantastic places and venues’. But despite racking up thousands of followers, nobody seems to have a nice thing to say about her (see our pick of the best print adverts for more inspiring campaigns).

Like any self-respecting travel influencer, she has an Instagram account where she shares tips on what to eat and even hosts logo reveals. Describing herself as a “worldwide Renaissance icon and Italy lover,” she has over 60K followers, and the haters just can’t help themselves (I guess the fame and free hotel stays will always make some envious.)

Some, including art historian Livia Garomersini(opens in new tab), say Venere is cheapening Italy’s artistic heritage, while others are appalled at the stilted copywriting, which, judging by the comments, is no better in Italian than it is in the dodgy translations. Others still are ridiculing Venere’s fast and loose use of B-roll, with one of her videos apparently featuring footage of Slovenia being passed off as Italy (to be honest, it sounds to me like she’s got the travel influencer role down to a tee).

“STO MALE DAL CRINGE,” one person wrote on Venere’s first Instagram post, which I believe translates as something like “I’m sick with cringe”. Others suggest the campaign’s slogan, which declares Italy ‘open to meraviglia’ (open to wonder), should be changed to ‘open to cringe’.

“Everything is so so bad, the name venere23, the voice, the images, the commercial that really leaves you speechless,” someone else wrote. “If you paid people to do this, you first blindfolded them, spun them around several times, turned them upside down and then made them work… it’s one of the few explanations I can give myself,” was another comment from sometime trying to understand what they were seeing. Someone pointed out that there wasn’t a single positive comment on the post, and they appear to be right.