NEWS

PIERO ANGELA
“I would like to extend my greetings to all the professionals working for Pubblicità Progresso, who strive to do meaningful things for the community. Campaigns such as those on organ donation, blood donation, AIDS, smoking, racism, volunteering, and disability are all perfectly aligned with the public service mission that television must uphold.
We too, in our own way, have often tackled such topics. Naturally, it is essential to use appropriate language—language that is at once persuasive, clear, and engaging, and, of course, solely in the interest of the audience.
The more effective the message, as you well know, the greater the likelihood that the campaign will bear fruit. Today, we live in a Babel of communication and telecommunication where everything—good, bad, and worse—circulates. This makes meaningful and important messages like those shared by Pubblicità Progresso even more necessary.
Let’s hope this work continues, delivering the right ideas to people’s homes and sparking new insights. Best wishes for your ongoing efforts.”

Good evening, dear friends. We have reached the end of this long and intense April afternoon. My role now is to be brief and, above all, succinct. I will do my best. Especially since we are full—of images and words—and we already understand how grateful we must be to those who have guided us through the extraordinary history of Pubblicità Progresso, particularly its past twenty years.
“Contri years” and “against years.” Alberto will forgive me for playing with his surname, even though I never play with others’ names. “Contri years” and “against years,” indeed—because they have been years against the wind. Twenty years against the winds that have gradually risen in our country. Winds that have swelled, becoming increasingly graceless and ultimately overwhelming, over the past two decades. Twenty years that have led us to this strange present, which I struggle—and I am not alone in this—to call “ours.” Yet it is ours, and it deeply concerns us all.
Twenty years in which, in the public debate, too many good and just words have been maliciously overturned and transformed into accusations:
– The work for a world without borders but with rules of justice has become “globalism.”
– Cooperation has been reduced to corruption and even called “mafia.”
– Aid and hospitality have been labeled as aiding and abetting “illegal immigration.”
– Charity and philanthropy have been turned into “business.”
– Goodness has been ridiculed as “naïve idealism.”
– Even generosity—the “gift,” which I should focus on here—has been reduced to little more, or little less, than a shaky lid over a pot of interests, suspicions, and resentments.

I do not believe in any of this, and I reject it. And you, dear friends of Pubblicità Progresso, believe in it even less than I do—I am certain of that. We do not believe in it, and we refuse to accept it, even though we take the challenge it represents very seriously. Each of us, in our own way and with our own means, freely takes on the challenge posed by these distortions of meaning—and therefore of human and civil direction—that strike at the very heart of our present and our future.

GIUSEPPE DE RITA

Twenty years ago, Italy was experiencing a decisive turning point in its economic and social evolution. The 2000s began with the tragedy of the Twin Towers, a symptom and sign of a radical transformation of the globalization that had emerged at the end of the previous century, which had seemed to herald a definitive (Western-style) modernization of the planet.
Italy, too, appeared to be moving along a similar developmental path. After all, it had come through three decades of progressive vitality within its unique model of development. This model, on the social level, was driven by a massive push toward individual agency (and a growing subjectivism in behavior); and on the economic level, by a complex blend of industrial localism (the so-called districts), widespread entrepreneurship (the saga of small and medium enterprises), targeted choices of internationalization (particularly through exports), and the development of product quality, even beyond the mythical “Made in Italy.”
We seemed to be a society not only in good health but also solidly aligned with global development and even based on increasing sociopolitical stability, marked by the emergence of bipolar alternation.
Yet hard years lay ahead. Starting in 2011, an international economic crisis struck, hitting the Italian system particularly hard, with a peak of fragility between 2014 and 2017. This crisis evoked comparisons to the dramatic 1929 crash, leading many to suggest that it would fundamentally alter the very foundations of our historical evolution. “We will never be the same again” became a common refrain in public debate.
This so-called “epochal” crisis (we often dramatize) was faced “bare-handed,” relying on what we had within our daily reality:
On one hand, we developed a collective sense of sobriety, which allowed us to monitor and control the seriousness of our individual and collective behaviors (some observed that “Italy’s agrarian backbone held firm”).
On the other hand, we saw that the “model” of the preceding years held up well: the districts endured, the ever-changing small and medium enterprises persevered, and the key sectors of our international presence strengthened—luxury and Made in Italy, food and wine, industrial machinery and parts, and tourism.
We could have looked ahead with confidence, despite the significant structural problems affecting our system (public debt, inefficiencies in public administration, corruption, etc.). Instead, we continued to nurture a culture of crisis, focusing on sensitive issues of our imbalanced development (inequalities, pockets of poverty, underdevelopment in the South, etc.), which, however, distanced us from confidence in the persistent vitality of the model that had defined us for almost seventy years.
This loss of confidence has manifested as an “anthropological” crisis, driven by a whirlwind of emotions—fear of falling in social rank, resentment, bitterness—and by simplistic responses to these feelings (calls to fight inequality, provide safety nets for the impoverished, and resist the revival of development as we knew it).
Behaviors have changed, both among the masses and in governance, because collective emotions—true “fast thoughts”—make it difficult to navigate the somewhat confusing array of phenomena, processes, prospects, and decisions. This difficulty increasingly highlights the isolation of individuals, whether they are acting in their daily lives or making decisions at the top.
It has thus become urgent to assist individuals in navigating an ever more elusive reality, ensuring them access to accurate information and controls on its reliability.
This brings the maligned intermediate bodies back into focus—not for their traditional role as mediators (the cycle of disintermediation has sidelined that function), but for their historic responsibility of consistently verifying information and using it to build a socially aware fabric, capable of understanding what is gradually unfolding.
“And it is natural to recall the significant role that Pubblicità Progresso has played in this effort to ensure a new, participatory, and informative social fabric—especially among young people. Their work has been entirely focused not on the immediacy of news but on a deep faith in the long duration of cultural, educational, and social processes”.

LORENZO SASSOLI DE BIANCHI

Until 1971, advertising in Italy built brands and sold products by telling stories with a fairy tale-like quality—stereotypes and myths of an Italian society that was growing and evolving.
In 1971, Pubblicità Progresso was born, and advertising transformed into a powerful tool directed at social policies.
It was the UPA (Utenti Pubblicità Associati) that founded it, creating the socio-political arm of advertising, because companies had realized it was in their interest to operate in a society that was more mature, aware, and ethical.
Italian companies understood that the healthier the system of values, the lower the risk of what psychologists call the “broken windows syndrome”—the perception of moral decay that inhibits activities and initiatives, interfering with the organic growth of society.
In 1971, for the first time, advertising techniques were used to raise public awareness about social issues, recognizing how challenging it is to change people’s customs, mindsets, and habits. Consequently, the common thread running through all of Pubblicità Progresso’s campaigns has been the same: transforming private habits into public virtues. This approach has also been the hallmark of the past twenty years under the enlightened leadership of Alberto Contri.
Let me give three examples:

Blood Donation
Before the campaign on blood donation, the idea of “giving blood” was always framed as an effort, with expressions like “spilling blood,” “sucking blood,” and “giving blood” often implying futility or sacrifice. Blood was seen in a rather vampiric way.
The first awareness campaign shifted this narrative by drawing on the father-child myth, turning effort into a gift through the image of a father’s eyes searching for life to give to his child. Pubblicità Progresso redefined the act of giving blood as an act of generosity.
The campaign had multiple effects: not only did it increase the number of donors, but it also led to new norms, laws, and regulations—such as the right to a day off for blood donation. Blood donors became a cornerstone of the quality of healthcare, a tool for preventive medicine. The campaign changed rituals and habits, using communication to transform an individual act into collective responsibility, making blood donation a mark of merit.

Smoking
After World War II, the cigarette market struggled due to limited income and changing habits, such as the switch to filtered cigarettes. This changed when the tobacco industry chose cinema as a communication channel. Cigarettes appeared in every film, and every actor seemed to smoke. This communication strategy created new models and made smoking a dominant habit in terms of frequency and the number of people involved.
Pubblicità Progresso intervened, applying the mechanism I mentioned earlier. Smoking, a private vice difficult to change, could not even be curbed by raising cigarette prices through taxes. The campaign transformed this private vice into a public virtue by opposing individual addiction with widespread social sensitivity. Smokers found themselves socially isolated.
The campaign also led to a series of laws that weakened the myth of smoking. Beyond this, the campaign, focused on the responsibility toward others, sparked an ethical competition among tobacco companies to fund social responsibility projects. For example, in Italy, Philip Morris is the only company to have fully achieved pay equity between men and women.
Pubblicità Progresso’s campaigns work in concentric circles, setting in motion mechanisms that go beyond individual morality to influence collective ethics.

Volunteering
The volunteering campaign demonstrated the power of communication on a sensitive topic: the willingness of individuals to give up their free time to help others.
Everyone knows Clark Kent is Superman. The campaign’s strength lies in its portrayal of Clark Kent as an ordinary citizen with a normal job who transforms into a hero when he dons the Superman costume. This analogy celebrated the mechanism of volunteering, showing how ordinary people become protagonists.
What was the effect of this campaign? It not only increased the number of volunteers but also enhanced personal value: through volunteering, individuals become heroes—heroes of the everyday.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude by thanking Alberto Contri for his immense contribution to the common good and his ability to create campaigns that fostered reflection and discussion on topics ranging from organ donation to gender equality.
To create effective social campaigns, we must not aim to change people’s minds directly but instead address systemic issues to influence individual mindsets. In simpler terms, a good action should trigger a ripple effect of positive reactions, acting on the system to reach individuals.
The great merit of Alberto Contri’s presidency, beyond his generous dedication, has been modernizing messaging and media use while preserving Pubblicità Progresso’s founding spirit: transforming private habits into widespread sensitivities and public virtues.
Doing good has done us good. Thanks to Alberto Contri’s two decades of leadership, we are all a little better.

CRISTINA MESSA

The mission of Pubblicità Progresso is to “contribute to solving civil, educational, and moral issues in the community by placing communication at the service of society.”
Since 1971, numerous social campaigns have been created, many of which have become deeply embedded in the collective imagination, making Pubblicità Progresso synonymous with social communication.
In 1999, a significant turning point was reached when the Association was transformed into a Foundation with two main objectives: to continue pursuing its founding goals by addressing citizens, and to provide specific training for those aiming to create social campaigns, thereby positively influencing the culture of NGOs, non-profits, and institutions in Italy.
The training project, supported for many years by the Fondazione Cariplo, revolved around the establishment of a Media Library that houses the world’s most significant campaigns. To date, 3,200 campaigns have been collected, categorized by topic, archived, and made freely available for study and benchmarking purposes. This allows Italian operators in the Third Sector and institutions to access a window into the best social communication globally and learn to communicate according to the highest international standards.
Over time, the increasingly valuable archive of the Media Library has been used to organize training seminars in various universities and master’s programs. Through a series of collaborations with professors interested in advancing social communication, another important pillar was built to make training efforts more structured: the Athena Network. Today, this network includes over 100 professors and researchers from 85 faculties and master’s programs across 44 universities throughout Italy, who organize seminars and courses. The network comprises professors in communication, economics, marketing, statistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literature, all participating on a voluntary basis.
An especially noteworthy initiative within this framework is the On The Move competition, which annually invites hundreds of students to create projects on the theme of Pubblicità Progresso’s campaign of the year, using unconventional marketing. One particularly striking example is from the campaign promoting organ donation. During a period when press coverage was severely limited due to a crisis, the campaign nonetheless achieved 52,000 new donors online. How was this possible? It was thanks to the 250 student groups participating in that year’s On The Move competition. Beyond submitting their projects to the jury, they shared them on their personal Facebook profiles, reaching approximately 200,000 contacts—one-quarter of whom became donors!
The professors of the Athena Network also contribute to writing content for a series of free e-books (six of which are currently available on the website www.pubblicitaprogresso.org).
In addition to organizing meetings and seminars in their universities, the professors in the network serve as speakers at the International Social Communication Conferences and the Social Communication Festivals organized by Pubblicità Progresso.
Today, the Athena Network constitutes a vibrant community that meets periodically in person and online, aiming to share the most advanced knowledge and techniques and to promote a continuously improving culture of social communication.

NANDO PAGNONCELLI

Over the past twenty years, Pubblicità Progresso has undergone a profound transformation, responding to technological challenges and shifting social dynamics. With the generous and active contributions of all its members and under the leadership of President Contri, it has successfully built networks by involving new members, establishing the Athena Network to ensure continuity and expand connections with the academic world, promoting and participating in events, innovating the selection of campaign themes and dissemination methods, and preserving its legacy through the creation of a remarkable and unique media library.
In this renewed and dynamic process of change, opinion research has played a prominent role. Since 1996, I have had the opportunity to serve on the Board of Pubblicità Progresso, representing the institutions affiliated with Assirm, the trade association. During Contri’s presidency, the research conducted by member institutions was used in a different and innovative way.
When Pubblicità Progresso’s activities were limited to a single annual campaign, research was primarily used for copy testing to evaluate the impact of different creative proposals and for post-testing to measure campaign recall and audience appreciation. However, these efforts were constrained by a media plan determined less by a detailed strategy and more by the availability of free advertising space offered by FIEG and the broadcaster members of Pubblicità Progresso.
An important milestone in this regard was a major project carried out in early 2001 by six leading research institutes. Each provided a team of researchers with expertise in social and socio-cultural studies. The aim of the research was to identify topics for future social communication campaigns.

After a thorough selection process, 59 topics were identified and subsequently narrowed down to 10, grouped into three thematic areas:
1.The quest for collective identity.
2.Interpersonal and social relationships.
3.The quality of individual and collective life.

Many of the campaigns promoted or endorsed by Pubblicità Progresso drew upon this extensive and detailed study.
I would also like to highlight the most recent research conducted with a sample of 1,200 university students attending courses taught by professors in the Athena Network. This study examined the so-called “media diet” of students.

The findings revealed that university students exhibited behaviors and habits not unlike the broader adult population:
-There is a preference for real-time updates over in-depth analysis.
-Self-selection of news limits the ability to contextualize and prioritize information.
-Perceptions often outweigh reality, and emotions overshadow rationality.
-Social media usage does not foster critical thinking, as homophily tends to prevail over engagement with diverse opinions.

The consequences of students’ media diet extend to their social climate, trust in the future, and relationships with politics and institutions, from which they increasingly feel alienated. This scenario helps explain phenomena such as “disintermediation,” which has spread from politics and representation to other social domains (e.g., debates on vaccines, nutrition, and expertise) and the rise of populism.
University students represent the future leadership class. It is vital that they become aware of their responsibilities as citizens and their duty to seek out information—not only to understand phenomena but also to develop a critical conscience.
These are just a couple of examples of the many bold changes undertaken over the past twenty years, which have enabled Pubblicità Progresso to become the most authoritative reference point for social communication in Italy.