This paper analyzes the struggles between the Italian winemaking and brewing industries over the shaping of bourgeois Italian tastes and habits during the interwar decades. During the early 1920s, Fascist Italy’s Industrial Wine Lobby began unveiling a wide range of public relations and collective marketing campaigns, which were aimed at forging new ‘fashions’ or trendy collective practices among the country’s wayward middle- and upper-class consumers. The pro-wine lobby’s efforts, however, were obstructed by a variety of political and commercial challenges, including a growing competition with various 'foreign' beverage industries, such as coffee, cocktails, and, above all, beer. Between 1929 and 1931, Italian brewers’ commercial lobbying organization, the National Beer Propaganda Consortium, launched two ambitious collective marketing campaigns of their own, which were centered on discursively intertwining the beverage’s consumption with bourgeois sociability, domesticity, and 'Italian' identity. Unwilling to yield any commercial ground to domestic brewers, Italy's Industrial Wine Lobby launched a follow-up, and wide-ranging collective marketing campaign in order to both defend 'the world’s vineyard' from the 'invasion' of 'semi-barbarian' preferences, as one wine lobbyist colorfully phrased it in 1935, and, equally as important, reposition Italian wine as a wholesome and fashionable ‘national beverage’ within the eyes of the peninsula’s middle- and upper-classes. By exploring these industries' conflicts over the definition and articulation of 'Italian' taste and style during Fascism's twenty years in power in Italy, this study aims to shed further light on the myriad, and oftentimes complex, relationships between popular consumption, industrial 'fashion' dynamics, and national identity.
is the inaugural Eugen and Jacqueline Weber Post-Doctoral Scholar in European History at University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled
which explores the way in which wine came to be viewed as a quintessentially ‘Italian’ beverage among Italy’s middle- and upper-class households during Fascism’s twenty years in power.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Hello everyone. Good afternoon, and welcome to our full series of talks of the Center for European and motion studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): As many of you know already. We periodically offer talk some themes of public and scholarly interest. And this year we're working through zoom and broadcasting on Facebook.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Our talks are also posted reviewing on our website. After the events. My name is Lori heart and I'm Professor of Anthropology and global studies and director of the Center.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): I want to begin by thanking our co sponsors for the talk today, the Department of European languages and trans cultural studies LTS at UCLA, which of course includes Italian studies in its portfolio.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And the institute or Italian or the Torah, the Italian Cultural Institute at Los Angeles. When we hope to welcome as partners for several talks in the course of a year.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): So thank you to those audiences for joining us. I'm pleased to introduce to you, Ryan J Griffith
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Who is the inaugural Eugen and Jacqueline Weber postdoctoral scholar in European history at University of California.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He has, by the way, just arrived in LA. So we're happy to be is unfortunately remote public welcoming committee.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Dr Griffis is a historian of modern Europe with interests in modern Europe modern Italy fascism consumerism transnational identities and the digital humanities.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He earned his BA in history from Sonoma State University is MA in modern European cultural and intellectual history from San Francisco State University and his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He's been the recipient of many fellowships and awards recognizing both his teaching and scholarship, including the wrong price Postdoctoral Fellowship in modern Italian studies from the American Academy wrong, which he declined to come to UCLA and a Fulbright fellowship
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Dr Griffis is at work on two projects, one of which you'll hear about today, the other one on internally and volunteers to the international the gates in the Spanish Civil War.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He's the author of several scholarly articles, including Baucus AMONG THE BLACK SHIRTS winemaking consumerism, an identity in Fascist Italy 1919 to 1937
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And contemporary European history that's just out in November 2020
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And blogging in the classroom. Using a blog as a supplemental resource in perspectives on history. The news magazine of the American Historical Association. That was a co author publication.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He's also co editor of the edited volume food fights the politics of provisions in global perspective in Zapruder world and international journal for the history of social conflict.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He's also a very dynamic teacher and public intellectual and I recommend that you all, check out his impressively lively relevant and informative blog.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): You can access this also through the link to his website on our announcement with compelling essays on timely topics such as how to keep the lights on in democracies.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): He's an editorial board member for the new fascism syllabus, which is a crowdsourced collection of writings on the history of fascist populace.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And authoritarian movements and governments during the 20th and 24 centuries and the website coordinator for the Society for Italian historical studies will be taking questions after the talk, via the Q AMP a function. So please write your questions and I will relay them to the speaker.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): So with that brief introduction on turn the podium over to Dr. Griffiths for contesting the national beverage wine meter and the battle over foreign base and habits into work, Italy, right.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Thank you so much Lori also Sonia liana at the Center for European American Studies at UCLA, for inviting me to give this talk for hosting it today. So I, I greatly appreciate the opportunity.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, there was undoubtedly a wine problem and Italy lamented automatic skulking fascists Italy's most outspoken and influential industrial wine lobbyist, quote, there are still 500 million men who do not know when he continued, and most of them.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): When they are presented with this.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Beverage
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In an informative and appealing manner.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote would become new customers of the precious vine. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): It's our fault mothers Kalki regretfully informed his colleagues, adding that the country's luxury wine growers had largely failed to vigorously promote domestically produced wines among Italian consumers with quote presser variance and technique.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Italy's pro and lobbyists hope to defend the countries in a logical heritage's from the so called invasion of foreign tastes and habits, they needed to coordinate themselves and quickly.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote a work of this kind must also be carried out to counter the effects of anti wine mania, but as Kalki insistent concluding quote propaganda must oppose propaganda and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The protein lobbies efforts at increasing domestic consumption of Italy, so called typical wines or VTT peachy during the 1920s, however.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Were obstructed by a variety of political and commercial challenges during fascism first decade in power, including competition with other beverage industries such as mineral water coffee and cocktails and, above all, beer.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Stemming from a series of financial losses during both the regimes battle for green initiative and shortly thereafter the Great Depression.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By the late 1920s, the Italian brewing industry had looked at largely began to descend into a full scale commercial crisis.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In response, Italian brewers commercial lobbying organization, the National beer propaganda consortium.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Launched the too ambitious collective marketing campaigns between 1929 and 1931
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which were aimed at expanding domestic beer consumption beyond just the summer months, and equally as significant tying the beverages responsible consumption to notions of Italian identity and bourgeois domesticity
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Italian brewers wide ranging marketing campaigns, of course, deeply vexed at least winegrowers
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Unwilling to yield any commercial ground to Italian brewers industrial wine lobby launched a coordinated and a coordinated series of collective marketing campaigns of its own.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In order to defend the quote unquote world's vineyard from the invasion of quote unquote semi barbarian beverages as one line lobbyist colorfully phrased it in 1935
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Wine lobbyists concerns were shared by many others, and most of the nice Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote during the liberal period with Benji out rights Italian consumption of foreign culture of popular and delete was among the highest in Europe.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to centuries of foreign occupation and political fragmentation, Italy, so called mutilated victory at the Versailles conference had only further
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Strengthen the widespread conviction that, in the words of one contemporary observer quote everything foreigners do is great and everything we Italians do is awfully
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The fascist one followers then yet continues by promising to reverse the situation of foreigner worship and create a national culture, that would be well received abroad. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And carrying out these objectives, the dictatorship pursuit and ambitious campaign for, quote, combating degeneration and radically renewing Italian society and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): However, the parameters of what constituted and adequately fascist or Italian idea taste and practice where although suddenly shaped and guided by the duties regime.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Largely left to the semi autonomous spheres of intellectual artistic and does this paper will stick to demonstrate commercial production.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That's under most of these 23 years and power in Italy domestic brewers were able to legitimately compete with wine growers over the meetings, as well as the limits of Italian this or Italian Anita
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In regard to the beverages that good fascist Italians were supposed to faithfully consumed.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): spurred by the threat of the brewers marketing Blitz during the early 1930s.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Italy's luxury winegrowers merchants and industrialists within the wine trade were launched into motion highlighting beers inherent foreignness to Italian tastes and habits and promoting wines deep historical roots within the Italian peninsula.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By successfully tying wine growing to notions of Italy's historical patrimony he's promoting wines contributions to fascism physical education programs.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And pursuing innovative methods for tying the winemaking industries crisis of overproduction with the fates of various other agricultural sectors, above all, the citrus fruit industry.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Italy's industrial wine lobby, not only read contextualize Italian viticulture as a national resource shared collectively by all Italians, the established the consumption of the peninsulas grapes grapes and wines as a veritable national tradition.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In 1924 Italy's peasant farmers experienced a considerably poor domestic wheat harvest. And as a result, retail prices for grain based foods, above all, breads and pastas shut up by some 60%
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In response, at least black shirt at Prime Minister at the time that you can mousseline
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Resolved, to quote unquote liberate Italy for what he believes where the classic colonial clutches of the great powers dominated international marketplace.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): buoyed by this atmosphere of economic struggle and emboldened by the Duke jays open declaration of dictatorship in January of 1925
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The regime launched the battle for grain in order to as Mussolini put it unshackle quote the Italian people from slavery to foreign bread and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to placing considerably high tariffs on importing grains, the dictatorship offered a range of subsidies, including tax exemptions and financial assistance from machinery.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Fertilizers and irrigation investments in order to stimulate the high higher domestic week production.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By 1935 domestically production had increased by an impressive 40% which of course significantly reduced the country's reliance on wheat imports.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Now, while the regime was busy mobilizing its troops of of contact Amy peasant farmers in the battle for grain another crisis began looming on the horizon.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): During the course of 1925 the Lear, it'll is currency began a precipitous decline and its international exchange value.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, as the exchange rate fell to 155 against the British Pound and 30 point 54 against the dollar Spencer, the scholar explains
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Mussolini fear that the lyrics collapse would threaten the long term stability of his fascist government
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To combat this fiscal downward spiral the dictatorship wants to launch a parallel battle for the lira
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which start to stabilize the exchange value of the country's currency at quota 90 or 90 lira to the pound sterling.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): deploying a combination of measures mobilizing public opinion, strengthening the central banking system and institution credit restrictions as well as perhaps paradoxically a hefty loan from New York City's Morgan bank by 1928 the dictatorship had succeeded and stabilizes at an impressive.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Against the British pound now the regimes battles, however, came with a number of unintended consequences for at least alcoholic beverage industries.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The liras revaluation at such a high rate discolour points out made Italian products expensive when international prices were already declined.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To make matters worse, the Great Depression of 1929 through 33 struck before the effects of the revaluation of the lira had been completely absorbed by the Italian economy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): As a result of these broader economic instabilities it'll his wine growing industry entered into a full blown agro commercial crisis by the early 1930s.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Stemming from a combination of mitigating factors, including the limited but significant successes of the Italian temperance movements anti white propaganda campaigns of the early 1920s.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The regimes battle for green initiative, a precipitous decline and Italian wine exports to the United States following the passage of the 13th amendment.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And the economic shock waves caused by the Great Depression massive consumption of Italy's grapes and wines was unable to keep pace with production.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And consequently, it looks great producers began experiencing a crisis of overproduction.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And while a significant quantity of the country's winds began piling up in the peanuts blows wineries warehouses and commercial depots
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): It telling winegrowers began inching towards a potentially disastrous financial precipice.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, the cost of this phenomenon wrote one wine lobbyist Luigi catalytic quote shiny, it's quite easily explained by the contraction of consumption. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Indeed, all the wine consumption had remained more or less steady between 1910 1930 hovering at an annual average of approximately 112 liters per inhabitant.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): It began plunging dramatically to just 88.2 liters during the years immediately following the stock market crash.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, we are therefore already facing an annual loss and consumption of about 5 million hectoliters of wine capital good shiny worryingly explained
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which was reportedly equal to an income of about half a billion limit per year and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Such potentially disastrous conditions counseled Maddox Kalki who, as of 1929 had been appointed as the regimes Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry constituted a quote unquote national danger.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Among wine lobbyists highest priorities was the quote unquote battle against what many pro wine campaigners and regime operatives frequently referred to
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): As the deplorable snobbery of Italy's privileged classes.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): It was, quote unquote, no longer tolerable declared modest Kalki for Italians, to be a quote running after wins or passively following unhealthy and unnatural currents, such as serving the to British domains and enjoying quote unquote to tonic beards.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Doing so he intended only undermined the country's most important rural industry and, consequently, the domestic consumption of Italian wines.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): These wayward Italians who were quote unquote worthy of the new times lot of skulk he continued were in need of being thoroughly informed that it was their absolute duty to prefer national products which are the quote fruit of their land and come from the work of our people and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In spite of the WL so the industrial wine lobbies anxieties with respect to beers growing popularity among domestic consumers, however.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Italian brewers were by the late 1920s beginning to experience a commercial crisis of their own.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): A combination of raising taxes on alcohol production and operation licenses and a considerable decline and domestic barley cultivation.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): due largely to the dictatorships battle for green initiative had led to a significant decline and the consumption of Italian made beers.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Between 1930 and the following year, for instance, national beer production declined by 220 1151 hectoliters which much like their winemaking colleagues greatly perplexed Italian brewers
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In response to these conditions, the members of other countries brewers began to organize themselves in order to address this collective commercial struggle for the industry.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And on February 3 1929 the members of the consultants to propaganda Buda an SEO knowledge or the national beard propaganda consortium, which is abbreviated as CPB n
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which was composed of approximately 19 of Italy's largest brewers voted in favor of pursuing an experimental form of collective advertising in the hopes of stimulating consumption of Italian made beer in Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And its first report to the CPB n Aaron lazy and Company, which I'm abbreviating as Ew, and see
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And it was an influential New York City based advertising agency which had been hired by the consultants to to carry out this ambitious campaign.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): hailed the forthcoming marketing Blitz as a quote remarkable event and the reawakening of Italian advertising, which would deploy. One of the most modern methods of advertising in today's times and that was collective propaganda and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): So deploying the adopted slogan key better be to be like kombucha and Danny, which translates to whoever drinks beer lives to be 100
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Ew, and see and its subsidiary marketing agency in Milan erewash er who carried up to large scale marketing campaigns on behalf of the brewing industry between 1929 and 1931
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Unlike Italy is winegrowers however Italian brewers were faced with the steep challenge of harmonizing beer consumption in Italy with the regime propelled
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Twin forces of tradition and modernity towards these ends that the agency developed a handful of promotional materials which sat to overturn
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): What they believed were common misconceptions regarding beers purported foreignness amongst specifically bourgeois Italian consumers by promoting the beverages connections to
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And associations with Italy's many historical and cultural heritage's in one advertisement entitled go back to the sources for example erewash the Milan, a subsidiary of the New York City.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): advertising agency reminded Italian consumers of beers storied role as a tasty and nourishing Thirst quenching for the populations of the Euphrates River Basin and imperial rum.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Featuring three super imposed images of beer consumers in ancient Egypt classical Rome and 20th century bourgeois high society.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The agencies, go back to the sources advertisement repositioned beer as historical and quintessentially Italian
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): I suggesting an underlying connection between the popular beverage and the birth of these complex civilizations.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In a related advertisement or series of advertisements Italian beer was characterized as a modern equivalent of Vino de gras know or wheat one
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, The History of rooms earliest epics tells a fresh drink held in great honor by Rome's founders, the advertisement informed its readers continuing quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): This was a barley based beverage. The primitive form of beer which the Romans inherited from the Egyptians. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Such connections arrows advertisement insisted had survived after the contemporary period, quote,
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The wheat wine of the Romans is the beer of the Italians explained, it's still another advertisement in the series, which is why consumers, whether at home or in the cafe at a bar or at a restaurant should quote unquote always request Italian beer.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Now, the majority of error was marketing materials. However, we're centered on upon impacting the consumption tastes and habits of Italy's bourgeois households.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): due largely to the poor reputations of the countries of steady and battling or wine taverns and saloons
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Beer, much like wine during the previous decade was considered by many middle class consumers as a predominantly working class and largely male beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To reverse these common associations, the agency developed a wide range of propaganda materials designed not only to make a beer that preferred beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): As air was end of campaign summary explained to the consortium members, but more importantly the quote most habitually consumed beverage among families in Italy and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Above all the agencies prob your advertisements strongly appealed to bourgeois women's cosmopolitan sensibilities by rebranding the beverage as popular and stylish.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): One arrow advertisement for instance actually entitled quote unquote beer becomes fashionable or libido de de de Moda.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Strategically proclaimed that quote beers becoming women's favorite drink due largely to the beverages growing popularity among women have high society, both at home and abroad.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Accompanied by an image of women and formal evening tire and enjoying a few glasses of cold refreshing beer, the advertisement concluded by exhorting its readers to quote follow fashion and always drink the most high genetic of beverages and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Now in the agency's end of campaign report in January 1931 everywhere explained that it had quote abstained completely from carrying out any attack on other Italian products during the advertising campaigns in support of Italian me beer, quote unquote, above all, wine.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In contrast to misleading public statements being made by many of Italy's luxury winemakers the agencies report explained that the two industries shared a number of important commercial challenges in common.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Any suggestion that the two industries occupied hostile as opposed to mutually reinforcing commercial territories was nothing more than a quote polemical artifice, and an excess of zeal on the part of the friends of the wine industry and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): We therefore believe, I can't paint summer continue to quote that the sensible beer, wine contrast was created for the sole purpose of awakening the wine producers from their advertising stupor.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And encouraging them to imitate brewers example of intra industrial solidarity and finally put up a valid defense for Italian wines painful losses on many domestic and foreign markets and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And that and if this is the case, the reports authors concluded, quote, there was nothing to do but to rejoice and describe the recent positive results for the for the beer campaigns.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): As among the advantages brought to Italy by this collective campaign made by the brewing industry and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): as was indicated in air was end of campaign report Italian brewers advertising campaigns struck a major nerve among Italy's industrial wine growers.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): For some time now lamented a theater axiom that NGO in December of 1929 just as Ew, and see was launching the first of the two pro beer collective marketing campaigns quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): There have been certain calls and invitations to drink beer to consume beer to quench one's thirst with eat with beer and even to feed on beer and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Since calls for increased consumption with unlimited sector of the market, quote, almost always represent the decline of another form of consumption, he added.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Any success in the Italian brewing industry enjoyed and doubling or even tripling the consumption of beer in Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Would come with the quote logical consequence of a reduction in the consumption of wine in Italy and quote. The only question that remains
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That NGO concluded was, quote, will the brewers succeed in their aim and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Well, some called somewhat foolishly for Italians to boycott beer in the interest of achieving a quote complete restoration of national viticulture
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Others attempted to undermine the CPB and marketing campaigns by way of leveraging the wine growing industries comparatively stronger influence over the affairs of fascist Italy sent
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In December of 1929, for instance, Senator Tito pudgy a task and agronomist, and the former director of the juvenile IV Niccolo Italiana or the Italian wine making newspaper
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Publicly inquired whether or not the regime had the power or even the will to curb the very act of propaganda that even with hygienic pretexts he explained is now being carried out to spread the use of beer in our eminently viticultural country.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To the other chagrin of pudgy as well as many other wine lobbyists. However, the fascist governments reply was unequivocal quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): There was only one and very valid means available, the wine trade a popular Italian wine making newspaper recounted to its readership and quote that is to imitate the brewers
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Balance and intense propaganda highlighting the merits of the moderate use of wine among our people who have known and been accustomed to it for millennia. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Noting the urgency of informing Italians of the quote unquote national duty of enhancing the vineyard company could shiny proudly announced the formation of the so chat see on a video Nicola, they're not real, or the video cynical association of a note via shortened as the oven.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which, in his words would help consolidate winegrowers collective financial resources disseminate news on the importance of it as a culture in Italy from an economic and social point of view.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And in general, quote, create a sphere of lively sympathy around viticulture and Venice products in Italy and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Armed with the oven Italy's wine lobbyists dedicated themselves to quote fight and absolutely frankly fascistic Lee national fight as Luciano Pasquale phrased it in March 1930 and quote at the same time.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): They will realize their own interests, not separate from those of the economy of the nation but common to it and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In responding to arrows is history themed marketing materials wine lobbyists went to great lengths.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To illuminate the wine growing industries myriad contributions to Italian history which purportedly according to wine lobbyists stretched from the classical to the industrial ethics.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Unlike beer which purportedly did not quote speak as wind does with the voice of history of traditions of the country of familiar
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Intimacy and quote members of the IWA well frequently proclaimed that winemaking had served as an unbroken agricultural practice in the Italian peninsula between the ancient and modern periods.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): While the Roman legions marched with the quote symbol that the fashola Guardium wrote letters Kalki suddenly drawing upon fascism mythos political rhetoric and imagery
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The quote Centurion always carry the vine stock which was planted in the region where the eagle of Rome had arrived. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Although one by warfare. He suddenly suggested the emperor's conquests, much like those expected for most of these forthcoming imperial conquests had always been, quote, quote, rooted with the vineyard and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): More recently, however, telling viticulture and wine consumption had played a substantial role within the momentum Italy's period of political unification between the mid to late 19th century.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to aspiring some of the young nation states leading political figures such as just that they might see me.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Wine had served as a source of inspiration or a spiritual companion to send a post unification, it'll is not celebrated literary
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): intellectual and artistic luminaries including just sweat Carducci just set a very the Java Scala and Gabriella Gabriella Dan and CO, among many others.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Beyond promoting wine growing long and deeply rooted history in Italy, why lobbyists attempt to intertwine their industries marketing schemes with the ideological vocabulary and key objectives of fascism popular sports programs.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Responding to the regimes emphasis on health virility and physical prowess Italy's wine lobby launched a handful of promotional campaigns which promoted wine as the ideal sportsman's beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The pernicious popular belief that quote athletes have an advantage with wine abstinence retinitis Kalki and 1934
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Is a very big mistake. Since the consumption of vino in small quantities is excellent for physical education, especially for, quote, open air games and equally as significant held the potential of improving one's physical performance by as much as 12 to 29%
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Such efforts that undermining the CPB NS health and nutrition oriented marketing materials were actually depicted in 1931 format, though, which playfully skew the intended meaning of the consultancy as widely disseminated marketing slogan, whoever drinks beer lives to be 100
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): featuring an obese, a feat bourgeois beer drinker and a muscular virile wine consumer the cartoon humorously declared that whoever drinks beer is obese by 40 years of age. Well, whoever drinks wine lives longer and at 100 is able to stop a bull.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Now beyond combating the CPB and collective marketing.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Initiatives the AWS such to address the country's ongoing wine crisis I searching for a new innovative methods for redirecting Italy's access grapes and wines towards alternative commodities and consumer markets.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to promoting Italy's luxury wines explained the influential Venetian in knowledge is afraid on that say
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): There was, there was still a dire need for, quote, preparing a summer drink and, especially, especially one that could compete with the popularity of foreign beverages, above all, beer.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Quote, whether the advanta a Stephen or the summer drink is prepared with freshly crushed grape juice or with wine Matt say contended
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Such a beverage would be very, very much improved in its organic elliptic hygienic and thirst. Quenching qualities quote by adding a good dose of citrus juice.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Such as from oranges or lemons by developing
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And developing and helping to popularize such a big van that Stephen might say concluded wine lobbyists could resolve.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Or at least alleviate the two crises that are afflicting Italian agriculture and that of course is the wind crisis and the citrus crisis.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Now, many other pro wine campaigners shared Matt say is
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Proposed summer beverage initiative quote that people have their needs, their desires, their wins, which are what they are and quote tomato jack hello jack jack Lalanne in Monaco reasoned in the wine trade.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): While the consumption of pure, simple wine continually decreases among Italian consumers explained the consumption of cocktails and beer is always increasing
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Since Italian consumers did not appear prepared to begin consuming the peninsulas typical wines.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Or VTT with a sense of urgency and national duty hoped for by Italy's industrial wine lobbyists any success in combating the wine crisis quote depends upon the creative genius of the artisans.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By what she meant luxury wine growers experimentally knowledge lists and wine merchants.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The economic significance of the bit of Vedic culture and citrus fruit industries Jacqueline in Monaco explained
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Could not be emphasized enough well wine accounted for some 5 billion leader in annual profits, for example, lemons and oranges produce approximately 484 and 462 million to get it per year, respectively.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That's the development of a national beverage would serve as a useful tool and appealing to and manipulating the snobbish preferences of Moore's Law consumers, thereby quote replacing the charm of the foreign land with the beauty of our nature. Unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Praising what he predicted would be the unitary beverage of the corporatist state.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Jack alone and Monica hoped. But this new Italian drink as he referred to it would quote attract the Italian people to domestic wonders, as well as convince them of the foolishness of a siren calls of the Barbarian and quote
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By the early summer of 1943 the National Farmers confederation in partnership with members of the IWA
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): had managed to bring some 22 different types of wine and citrus infused beverages to the Italian marketplace reportedly with some considerable successes.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Among these experimental beverages was the quote unquote Thirst quenching sparkling drink, known as Veen beer or wine, beer.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which was reportedly manufactured with wine and citrus juice blended with herbal juices.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Created by the PM, we the beverages company in general a vin de la end to quote alleviate the crisis of these production of products by promoting their widest use
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And equally as significant encourage Italians to substitute exotic beverages, which above all included the growing popularity of Italian and foreign beers with the quote healthy products of our agriculture, unquote.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The to promote the planet beverage. The, the peak realty company hosted a sampling bar at the 1932 fee additive that owner or the the Verona trade fair
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to offering samples of the year to this year is regular attendees, the company proudly served the minister and separate Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): With a handful of sample glasses of this experimental that beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Acknowledging Veen beer as wide support in Verona as they phrased it the two officials reportedly offer their strong words of encouragement to the PM really companies contributions to the invention and the popularization of a national beverage in Fascist Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): So what can we say by way of conclusion here during the 1920s domestic consumption of Italian made beers.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And wines declined significantly due largely to economic sharks, which followed in the wake of the fascist dictatorships battles for grain and the leader. And also, of course, the Great Depression.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In response, Italian brewers attempted to stand these commercial losses and even gain new ground within the Italian alcoholic beverages.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Consumer marketplace by launching an ambitious and Insula wide collective marketing campaign on behalf of all Italian brewers
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to promoting beers a legend historical roots in Italy, stretching from Ancient Egypt. Ancient Rome.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The CPB ends advertisements targeted bourgeois consumers, specifically, hoping to infiltrate the privacy of the middle class home.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And transform bourgeois Italian men and women into loyal consumers of Italian made beers now such a ambitions, as we've seen deeply disturbed Italy's luxury wine girls and their commercial and industrial partners.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And response to Italian brewers promotional campaigns, the country's industrial wine lobby or the WL led by the newly minted viticulture association of a nuclear
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): launched a series of collective marketing campaigns have their own seeking to repudiate the CPB ends attempts at tying beer consumption.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To Italian identity and bourgeois domesticity and more significantly fortified wines position as what was to their minds. The country is quote unquote national beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In addition to promoting the long and deeply rooted history of wine growing within the peninsula.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Wine lobbyists such intertwined their industries marketing schemes with the ideological vocabulary and key objectives of fascism popular sports programs.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Demonstrating wines sing on empty with fascist notions of a realty and physical prowess.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Moreover, and very much unlike Italian brewers the WL successfully partnered with other domestic agricultural industries who much like beer and wine were experiencing crises of overproduction.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In partially tying Italian bit of it at cultures commercial fate to those of other national industries such as the citrus fruit producers of economically underdeveloped Italian South
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But the wine growing industry successfully navigated through and even help to ship the priorities and anxieties of most of these 20 year dictatorship.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And in so doing, as I have argued here they establish Italy's grapes and wines as national resources and their consumption as a national tradition.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Thank you so much.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): John you myself. Thank you very much, Brian.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): I will now welcome questions from the participants, you can post your questions in the in the Q AMP. A for discussion.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Which I have
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And I relate them to Brian. So, but maybe I could start off with a with a question here.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): I find it really fascinating, the way in which you described this this sort of publicity battle between beer and wine and I have several questions specifically about the advertising campaign, but let me start off with a much more general question.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Which is that from the account that you've presented the
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): The campaign of the vintners is conducted through an appeal to values which you might associate with fascism and certainly with nationalism.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): But the fascists political machine, let's say,
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Did not intervene directly to promote this this industry over beer from what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong. And so I'm curious about a couple of different things. Um, was there a sense in which the
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): The political establishment in fact was more interventionist than then his first apparent. And then, and then secondly,
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Are there actual personnel connections that are stronger between, say, the beer industry and fascist
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): The fascist government or or wine and the fascist government. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Yes, thank you for those two very, very good questions, actually, it kind of hit the heart of this particular phase of this research project.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Which which was has a lot to do with the connections between industry and regime. Right. And what surprised me a great deal in in preparing this talk, which of course is kind of seed for a future publication is realizing how
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): How agnostic, the fascist regime was in regard to the existence of the Italian beer industry, right, because it does seem at face value.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That beer is, you know, foreign to Italian culture that's what's surprising. I think about this research to me. And that was certainly one of the talking points of the Italian winemaking
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Industry. But what mattered most to Mussolini's regime was the net. Let me in terms of economics was the national economy and what that constituted was not heritage products, per se, which is what the winemakers wanted to to
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To contend, but rather all the components of the national economy and yet economic activity that was nationally Italian run by Italians.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Regardless, apparently of the dependency upon foreign foreign imports for things like barley and hops which the the brewers were dependent upon
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): What matters the most is that they weren't economic sector and therefore matter to the national economy and the space that the regime gave to the contest over what Italia
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Actually met what it actually stood for, in terms of beverages in terms of foods was largely left up to these industries to kind of
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): You know, duke it out over their marketing battles and that was deeply frustrating to the winemaking industry who very much wanted this exclusive relationship with the machine now to the second part of your question, which is, which is a really important
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Thing that you pointed out.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The, the winemaking industry was just in much faster than the, you know, much, much larger than the Italian brewing industry.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): If you look at the consumption figures. I mean, the beer consumption, even now doesn't even come close to wine consumption. So
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): There's almost this like crisis of authority at work in this panic over the, you know, rising
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Rates of beer consumption among the winemakers I mean going for example from like 1% to 3% in a decade versus, you know, something much higher for wine.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But the one making a distributed with size and it's connection to not only the agrarian sector of the economy, but also industry heavy industry because you know the
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The manufacturers of mechanical pumps of chemical pesticides, all of them were tied into viticulture very much unlike the brewing industry, which I've mentioned before was deeply dependent upon various foreign
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Industries like hops producers and green and barley producers.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And so because of that, that enormous economic footprint right in Italy winemaking did enjoy a disproportionate influence within the regime. But it's interesting to me that that was not a monopolistic relationship as much as the industrial wine lobby would have liked it to be.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you. Thank you. Um, I have a question from our audience.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): This question is, I'll just repeat it for what you know of other products in the same period.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Do you think that this exploration of consumer culture under fashions and modifies general views of the regime, such as its identification with the fetishization of politics.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Should we begin to take more seriously. The combined asceticism ation of consumer products via modern on guard aesthetics, as shown by Karen gives his bodily regimes study of advertising and politicization of economics as the underbelly of the regime and the corporate state.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Yeah, that's a very good question. And that's something that I've been
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That I've been kind of Toiling on, and grappling with. For the last year to thinking
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Thinking a bit more sort of larger picture here about what the implications of not only these marketing campaigns, but the larger project on winemaking that I'm currently engaged in writing what that means.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): For our understanding of the nature of fascism and what fascism and what the regime was stood for. And also, who are the kind of agents, the political agents behind the formation of what we refer to as fascist culture in modernity and so
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): My short of my answer here is that I haven't more thinking to do here, but this is definitely the direction that I'm taking this research, which is related to
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To the the broader research and historiography on as Claudia mentioned the status ization of politics of fascist Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The, the, the, to put it more plainly, the kind of the commercial underbelly of these larger political phenomenon that historians for the past you know 2030 years of fascist Italy have been had been working on. So I'm working to relate my research to that body of research.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you. And, as Brian mentioned that was from Claudia figure
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): A comment from Atlanta and a question from Robert English. The liras clobbering value was a monetary not fiscal crisis. This refers to tax and interest rate policy not exchange rate. So that's a comment on
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The Lydia. Thank you for the correction.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And the question the leading Italian brewers peroni morality manana Bria etc. All date back to mid 19th century. What's more, in the 1930s Italy exported roughly as much beer. Is it important, according to ice chat and the banker.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): How is this then unimportant beverage.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Yeah, that's a good question. So, so I actually did this research at the
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Lucky VO story go the beta pepperoni and wrong. So they have a
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Large historical archive that's open to researchers. It's magnificent if anyone who is listening is interested in these topics very well organized and that's where I found all these collected marketing campaigns, so yes peroni is one of the major ones involved.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But I think when I but I also Pascal skis, which is no longer in existence was also included in this list of 19 birds. Now I should say that the consortium didn't include every single Italian brewery was just the major the major producers in Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): So from the perspective of the industrial wine lobby right part of part of their marketing ploy to undermine Italian beer and to counteract the effects.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Are the intended effects of the collective marketing campaigns on behalf of Italian brewers was to point out the fact how dependent
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The Italian brewing industry was on foreign imports, because as I mentioned before, prior to the battle for grain.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): There were there were more domestic barley supplies.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Available, but the bed for green expanded we production in a league which displaced. Some of the crops that Italian brewers were able to previously draw upon which made them more and more dependent upon foreign sources.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Of the basic ingredients which go into making beer now something that didn't make it into this presentation just due to time constraints, was that in 1934 when
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Mussolini unveils officially the corporatist regime and announces the different corporate branches of the Italian economy vintage vintage culture gets its own Corporation
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But the regime puts brewers in that Corporation, which is of course insulting to the industrial lobby but turns out to actually be to their great advantage because what the purpose of the
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): corporatism and the corporate branches of the Italian economy under fascism was to regulate the production
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): distribution and consumption cycles of entire entire sectors of the Italian economy and now the brewers were included in that branch of the Italian economy under an AWS dominated branch of the
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Of the Italian economy and the, the difficulty corporation winemakers industrial winemakers were able to physically mandate.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To the disadvantage of the Italian brewing industry that they needed to nationalize their resources as much as they possibly could.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And part of that went into partnering with with farmers to grow the necessary ingredients but also mandating the brewers had to have a certain percentage of nationally grown sources of malt nationally grown hops, which were very hard to find in Italy.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And so that that pushed the industry further away from dependence on on the materials for for making
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): For making beer now as far as a beer imports go I haven't focused on those because of course they were not not the participants within this collective marketing campaign. Those were the Italian companies that participated in the campaign not foreign manufacturers.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you. A question from Julie pal propaganda seems largely aimed at the middle classes, I presume, to some extent, in an effort to capture disposable income.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Did the wine lobby just seed territory to be your, your brewers and working class market or did they make enough room to grow or maintain that customer base as well. If so, how did they shape their appeal.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Yeah, that's a really great question. So I will, I will begin.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): By saying I have just recently as Laurie pointed out in my introduction earlier. I've just recently published an article in contemporary European history which is specifically on this topic. So for up. I didn't make it into the presentation. Unfortunately I focused on different topics.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But for for anyone who's interested in seeing kind of an overview of the IWA attempts at shaping
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The perception of wine and the the consumption of wine and one specifically bourgeois Italian consumers.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): I would direct you to to that that article. As I mentioned, it's open access, so it can be accessed by anyone. Um, but yeah, so the wine as
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Kind of speedily go through this wine during the opening decade of the 20th century, and also during the First World War, wine, decaying closely associated with
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Working Class squalor, at least among Italian politicians intellectuals and more broadly the middle classes for a variety of reasons.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Perhaps the largest one was that during the First World War Italy's war industries which was subsidized by the Allied
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Credit loans that were given to me by a Great Britain and the United States enabled a higher unemployment rate among the industrial working classes, particularly in the north.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And they had more disposable incomes and therefore were able to buy things that they normally weren't able to buy and this kind of unfolds into a
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): An association. That one came to be associated with images of industrial working class squalor and and you know working men's
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): saloon culture. And so because of that, and then immediately after the war, there's an Italian Temperance Movement propaganda campaign.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Aimed at alcohol in general that they attack wine in particular because wine is the most you know widely consumed alcoholic beverage in Italy at that point and
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Particularly among the working classes who are suffering from, you know, higher than the normal rates of chronic alcoholism. And so the temperance movement also comes into the picture and further kind of Sally's wines image.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Among the among the middle classes. And so the entire 1920s and 30s were really dedicated to through a variety of just a wide range of initiatives.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To kind of turning around that image and to convince middle class Italians. Right. And this was connected to the regimes broader project of convincing Italians that they weren't
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But they had a culture in which, with which they could be proud of. Right, but they
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Didn't need to foreigner worship anymore and consume foreign trends to be fashionable or to be accepted in the world, but that Italy had its own
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): National prestigious culture that they could, you know, draw upon liberally and from the winemakers perspective that include
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That included a Italian made wines. So yes, that was a major portion of the AWS marketing campaigns. But as I mentioned, unfortunately didn't make it into today's presentation.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you. And one more comment from Robert English. Well, for that matter of things like Sarah many Italian wines were grafted onto American rootstock that is just as important as the British barley and challenging brewers should have seized on this.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): That is indeed true yeah
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And for those who don't know the file X rays. This some this little room allows that that was actually a customer has evolved in North America to North American grapevines and those were were largely
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): You know, immune from the fire locks for that the two had evolved over time together. But, you know, in the late 19th century, a steamship travel became more prevalent between the two parts of the world.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Graph things and clippings began to kind of make their way around, you know the the different viticultural regions of the planet.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And that brought the file ox or to Europe which absolutely devastated French Spain, and to a lesser extent Italian
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): vineyards and they tried so many different things to correct this. But ultimately, as, as Robert rightly points out the solution was really to basically up route entire vineyards.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To plant American rootstocks which which were resistant to the firebox right and then to graft Italian and French varietals onto those results. So that's
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Indeed, true.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): That's a good point. We're almost out of time. I just wanted to ask you one last question about about another aspect of the presentation. We've been talking a lot about wine, beer.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): But another aspect of the relationship that you have sketched out to me fascism and the industry's has to do with advertising itself.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): And it seems as though there is an aspect of this response from the, from the regime of encouraging advertising to actually develop and I don't know if you've seen the
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Interesting documentary by Adam Curtis, the century of the self, which traces. Some of the you know psychoanalytic and and public relations.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): The development of that industry in relationship to politics in the US over this period of time. I'm just wondering if you could say something more about advertising itself. This new collective advertising system and how fascism is related to the development of that.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Yeah, Laura. That is such a good question because that's for the second time today you've anticipated another deep kind of current of my the direction I'm taking this research and
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): I'll put it as simply as possible that the goal, the aim that I have here is somewhat of a history of graphical subversive one, I would like to look at
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): We tend to think of propaganda as something that that like authoritarian regimes do right and then advertising as a thing that you do to sell more products and those are separate and their aims in their methods.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And the kind of psychological principles and observations inherent within the but those are separate areas of of activity. And I actually don't see that divide as starkly as some people do, which is why I've allowed the word propaganda to kind of intermingle
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): In my research with
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With advertising.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): And so I'm very much interested in two things I'm interested in what the differences between are the similarities are between
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): The Italian fascist regimes propaganda campaigns for making Italians and the wine making
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Industries advertising or marketing campaigns for precisely the same thing, making Italians and the relationship
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Between the two of them. The industry, the winemaking industry and the regime. I haven't exactly sorted all the
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): You know ins and outs. The differences between these out just yet, but I suspect that there's a really intimate relationship going on here and that the winemaking industry, given that behind a grain production is it's like the second largest
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Industry in Italy during the 1920s and 30s, but there's a there's a huge, hugely unrecognized contribution made by making propaganda.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): To the regimes nationalization campaigns and schemes during especially during the 30s, so that that precisely that that false dichotomy between marketing and advertising and and propaganda is something that I'm really interested in exploring
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you so much, was really a fascinating domain.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): A final comment and then and then we'll have to conclude
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Again from a from Robert English, I noticed some subtle images in your illustrations of the beer Italian historical tradition campaign.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): In the background of the Egyptian Roman Italian scenes in one Addison apparently black jazz band in the other family seat one lady is holding a horse cigarette looks like some subliminal advertising here as well.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Well, that certainly that would be on par for public relations to kind of fold in different industrial interests to another, another industries marketing campaigns.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): But also I think that might have a lot to do with the fact that the beer makers hired in American marketing firm, whereas the Italians. The sorry the the wine makers. They rejected that and and went on their own. So perhaps that's what we're seeing peeking through their good I
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Another interesting dimension to explore the international advertising connections versus the national ones. Fascinating.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Well, thank you so much for a really engaging talk and I hope that we'll be able to follow some more of your
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Work in the future. We hope to have a lecture in the spring on your work on posters in the contemporary moments fascist posters in Italy in a contemporary moment.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): please thank. I want to thank our audience for participating and contributing such wonderful questions, please check our website for future events. And I would just indicate for those of you interested in
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Products of one sort or another that we do have a talk in January about cross Mediterranean traffic in animals and and pandemics. That might be interest of interest to many of you. So I want to thank you very much and thank you especially to Lyon for a wonderful talk.
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Brian Griffith (UCLA, History): Thank you Lori and thank you everyone.
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Laurie Kain Hart (Director, UCLA CERS): Thank you.