Draghi water, Bersani beer. History and symbols of very different stolen photos
History and symbols of two stolen photos: Draghi having lunch at the airport, Bersani in a brewery. The letter from Chiara Geloni, journalist, formerly at the "Popolo", former deputy director of "Europa", former director of YouDem, the Pd's web TV, and author of the book "Titanic. How Renzi sunk the left"
Dear director,
the photo stolen yesterday in which Draghi eats a simple meal at Fiumicino airport has been compared, even in some newspapers , to the equally stolen one in which Bersani sipped a beer alone in the now distant January of 2012. I don't think the comparison between the two photos makes great sense. Given the enormous relevance – which I don't think you miss – of the question, I'll try to explain why, and maybe I'll tell you some little unpublished background.
First of all, I don't even know if Draghi is really alone. The photo was taken so that you don't see if there is anyone at that table with him or nearby. You can't see if the wife is there, you can't see if there's an escort. The meal seems sober, but it is a context – the departures area of an airport – in which it is perfectly normal to eat something light on the go – it is appropriate to say – and alone. In short, Draghi does nothing special at all. Yet on social media, the appearance of that shot caused the usual rapture of oooo see how good oooo see how sober oooo how humble oooo give us back Dragons . Which is all true and legitimate but, in fact, not demonstrated by that image.
The photo of Bersani, taken eleven and a half years ago in a brewery in the center of Rome by a very young Luca Sappino, then not yet – as he is today – the fascinating and emerging face of La7, is very different and was born in a completely different context. Bersani is filmed with the whole table, so as to appear unequivocally alone: a little bundled up, perhaps shivering, with glasses, beer on the table, Bersani isn't eating. But he writes.
Young Sappino snapped and tweeted the photo with this post : "Leader of large party of former center-left seeks drinking buddies." When we realize it – at the time I was working on the communication of the Democratic Party – the tweet and the photo are already "viral": they have already generated waves of jokes and teasing on social networks and have been featured on the websites of the major newspapers. It is Il Corriere who calls us, with a certain gravitas: "Ehm, we have a photo of Bersani who…". It takes a hit. Luckily we quickly understand that it's nothing particularly embarrassing. But in a more or less friendly way, the sense of the message launched by Sappino and picked up by the web is clearly: look at this loser.
It is the eve of an important national assembly. We are all at the Fiera di Roma, checking setups and technical details for the next day's streaming. In 2012 we are still quite pioneering in terms of social media, especially Twitter. The idea of squares and squadrons organized to direct communication on the net is even more than premature. However, when we notice the photo, with Bersani's spokesman Stefano Di Traglia and the others present, we immediately "feel" that this Bersani in the brewery actually has potential.
But what a loser. Many note with pleasure and affection that perhaps Bersani is writing alone, without the help of any guru and without the staff, the expected speech he will have to make the next day. Many appreciate it. Many express affection for the secretary taken up in a situation of such great simplicity. So we decide to indulge this sentiment, to make it grow.
“The secretary frequents that place because they offer good beers. And he spent the whole day alone to write the speech for the National Assembly, starting tomorrow afternoon”, we let the press know, confirming what many have guessed for themselves. And by lateral and unofficial ways, we work on the first memes that will make that photo a communication fact that eleven years later – incredible – still remembers. Bersani and beer alone among the people like in a painting by Hopper. Bersani and the beer with the inscription "We're not here to heat the beer", as in a sketch by Crozza. Bersani and beer with pope Ratzinger who also writes. And finally, Bersani retweeted Sappino: "You caught me".
The thing at this point grows by itself and really "tours the web" to date. That photo is still, eleven years later, a symbolic image of Bersani and of a political season. Why?
Because it's authentic. In the storytelling that we built or helped shape that afternoon there was nothing that wasn't true. And at the same time, that photo says something truly original, or dissonant with the deeply rooted image of politicians who are all staff, consultants, cynicism, autoblu and exclusive clubs: Bersani is a secretary who writes speeches like this, over a beer and alone. It's not just because he has to get on a plane. It's just because he took an afternoon thinking about what to say.
Last little background: Bersani got into trouble for that photo, whoever was responsible for his safety hadn't been warned of that sortie and only found out about it because of Sappino's shot. That image really surprised us: we, his collaborators, and the escort, first.
The moral of the story, mind you, is not a better Bersani gnegnegne Draghi: there is no this race and it is not interesting to do it. In the end, however, those two photos say a lot not only about the two subjects photographed, but also about how the media system has perceived and told them. In short, on us, even more than on them.
And for this reason, and not to make comparisons, it seemed to me that it made sense to recall the story of Bersani's photo with beer.
Clare Geloni
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/lacqua-di-draghi-la-birra-di-bersani-storia-e-simboli-di-foto-ben-diverse/ on Thu, 29 Jun 2023 18:47:53 +0000.