Common Italy paid a final tribute to Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday 14 June in Milan. Hated by some, adored by others, the Italian businessman was above all as smart as a monkey.
Berlusconi’s death was reported to the Italian press: “No one differentiated the Italians much”
Strange as it may sound, but one of the monkey’s nicknames was Caiman. And so, in 2006, during the Cannes Film Festival, a feature film with this title was included in the official selection. Directed by Italy’s Nanni Moretti, “Cayman” was a one-question-wracked comedy that returns in an episode: “Where does the money come from? Where does the money come from? Where does the money come from?” » Obviously, neither Moretti nor Italy understood the affluence of the businessman [qui est resté jusqu’à sa mort le 12 juin l’une des plus grosses fortunes de la Péninsule, avec un patrimoine évalué début avril par le magazine « Forbes » à 6,8 milliards de dollars (6,2 milliards d’euros), NDLR].
sequel after announcement
During the same spring of 2006 I had the opportunity, in the course of my work, to share a lunch in Paris with Jean-Claude Bourret, the former TV news anchor. The journalist had asked himself exactly the same question Moretti had, but twenty years earlier. With one key difference: Berlusconi was on hand. Le Caïman had just arrived in France to set up a private canal, La Cinq – a canal for which Jean-Claude Poiret had just been employed. The two men had a relationship of trust, and began a professional journey together.
Silvio Berlusconi demonizes the far right
Jean-Claude Poiret says he then asked Berlusconi how he managed to make so much money through his channels in Italy. Berlusconi explained to him that it was very simple. At the beginning of the private channels, the number one pig in Italy was not advertised on television; It was a number one, and with the price it cost, it wasn’t necessary. So Berlusconi asked his advertising agencies to call three hams and make tempting offers to buy ads on his channels. Number Three had made up his mind and, thanks to all the publicity, began gobbling up the market share of Number Two’s pork. Panicked, Number Two, in turn, bought advertisements from Berlusconi’s channels. Same reason, same result: The second man earned status as the first. A few months later, the number one was there in turn.
on fire. With Berlusconi, Italians started eating pork including the price of a TV spot. The mechanism is available at will, for each sector, for each item of household expenditure: pasta, cleaning products, cars, pasta sauces, household appliances that wash dishes soiled with pasta sauce, etc. Money was flowing freely into Silvio’s pockets.
Capitalism exploits pixels
The money came from the ads. From the pockets of Italians, through advertising expenses that advertisers must recoup in the prices of their products. A new stage in the value chain has just been born. With the power of television, the picture could potentially have been seen simultaneously by an entire country. Capitalism was reinventing itself before the eyes of Italians, and had just found a new tool for producing wealth: advertising on screens. What we might describe as: “Capixelism”, capitalism exploits pixels. With Silvio Berlusconi, the Italians will be, in a way, a laboratory. A plant that even tried to export it to France.
sequel after announcement
In February 1986, François Mitterrand, then in power, called for Berlusconi actions this side of the Alps. Three months later, he was cut to pieces by the oath. The winner of the legislative elections, Jacques Chirac, in a disproportionate response to Mitterrand, privatized TF1. Berlusconi cannot repeat his Italian success. The French will eat pork at a new advertising cost, but the money will go to TF1. Advertisers most at risk, Berlusconi and La Cinque will have only crumbs.
Somewhere other than Europe, during the second half of the twentieth centuryH In the last century, two other countries experienced similar lab fates with television: Brazil and the United States. Without strong public broadcasting, it was only the networks in the US or TV Globo in Brazil that captured this much advertising value. For example, it was not until 2007, at the beginning of the second term of left-wing President Lula, that Brazil gave birth to TV Brasil, its first national public channel.
Silvio Berlusconi participated in Italy’s decline and did not solve any of its problems.
Forty years later, this tendency is beginning to work. evolved and moved. TV screens moved from the bedroom to the kitchen. They made babies, now present in our hands, with these smartphones where targeted ads are rife. And where the image can now be seen at any time around the world. Live, replay, want some here!
Capixelism rages most strongly with the digital giants and their mis-called social networks, because it is economic. On the same Wednesday, June 14, Silvio Berlusconi’s concert was barely complete, young influencers traveling at high speed in a sports car through the streets of Rome caused the death of a 5-year-old. While driving at high speed, they filmed themselves to feed their social networks. With 600,000 subscribers on YouTube, 260,000 on TikTok, and 88,000 on Instagram, the discovery must end with common bugs.
sequel after announcement
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journalist, author, Benoit van de Steen It is concerned with the economic model of advertising. Published an article titled “Media and Advertising. Exchanges with our President on the Image Society” in Ellipses, 2011.
