With the Formula One 2025 season set to get underway at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix (live at 2:30am GMT if you can’t wait until the morning) brands are going into overdrive to attempt to prove their F1 credentials.
None more so perhaps than Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, the Italian alcohol-free beer brand from Asahi Europe & International, which is kicking off a new full year campaign, ‘The Italian Way’, aimed at celebrating the traits of Italian culture, passion and style (well, that is according to the official blurb, anyway).
To launch the campaign, Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% debuts ‘The Welcome Present’, a film starring Scuderia Ferrari HP racing drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. It is McCann London’s first campaign for Peroni since McCann Worldgroup won the global account in September 2024.
Set against the backdrop of the Italian hills, the short film follows a “special delivery” to Hamilton – who has just joined the Scuderia Ferrari HP team – apparently arranged as a gift from Leclerc.
As Hamilton chills out on the veranda of a stunning villa in the Italian hills, Leclerc looks on through binoculars as we see a group of Ferrari superfans – otherwise known as Tifosi – in a van, weaving their way through tiny villages with 44 cases of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% in the back. A homage to Lewis’ racing number, 44.
Directed by Martin Werner, the ad is designed to showcase Italy and Italians alike, highlighting the warmth and generosity of being welcomed in Italian style.
We then see the Tifosi unload their cargo at the front of the villa, press the bell and race off back down the mountain. Hamilton emerges out of the front door and picks up a note which reads “salute”; the film ends as the camera pans out on the two drivers back on the veranda, each enjoying a bottle of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%.
Back to the official line: “Throughout the year, The Italian Way activations will unlock the exclusivity that surrounds the grid, usually reserved for the few, and transform it into stylish city takeovers to be enjoyed by the masses, giving fans exclusive access to the world of Scuderia Ferrari HP.
“Through music, design, curated food and drinks, The Italian Way event series will deliver the excitement and glamour of the racing scene, through a contemporary Italian lens.
“Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% invites consumers to feel free to live every moment, safely, and in style. Inspiring them to drink less, by providing an aspirational choice which suits their lifestyle.”
Asahi Europe & International chief growth officer Nathalie Pfaff Seigle said: “We are incredibly proud to launch The Italian Way campaign, a true celebration of our brand identity and culture. Through the campaign, we intend to elevate every racing moment for fans, embodying the very passion and style so pivotal to both Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% and Ferrari.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Well, on the surface this ad has the perfect ingredients, stunning Italian views, the thrills and spills of motor racing and beer. Unfortunately, the end result is not quite so ideal. Maybe, just maybe, it will get better in the year ahead but to use an F1 metaphor, this execution is at the back of the grid; if it didn’t have the Italian views it wouldn’t even be in the race.
Hardly passionate and stylish. Still, the only way is up!
Decision Marketing Adometer: A “spluttering start” 6 out of 10
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