I'm going to be honest here. I'm not a fan of Italian soccer at all. I mean, granted, I'm not much of a fan of soccer period, but of Italian soccer even less. That's because a) there seems to be some kind of gambling probe every year in Italian soccer b) their fans are notoriously racist against African players c) the country single-handedly created the soccer dive.
Which is why it's hilarious to me that Italy is suddenly in an uproar over a German commercial poking fun at Italians before EURO 2008 begins in a little over a week.
German electronics chain Media Markt has created new TV ads featuring "Toni the Italian," played by German comedian Olli Dittrich. In the ad Toni scurries through the aisles of a Media Markt store plugging a variety of flatscreen TVs with a thick Italian accent, cheesy sales tactics, and greasy machismo. Here's one example.
That isn't that bad though. What really pissed off Italians is that Toni explains the difference between people on either side of the Alps: "The Germans buy laptops; the Italians buy referees."
So, uh, what's the problem? Remember in 2006 when four Serie A teams, including AC Milan, were dropped from the top league for match fixing? Yeah, apparently Italians forgot that.
Anyway, some Italian newspapers have called the ads racist, while some people have called the portrayal scary accurate. In all honesty, I don't think it's much worse than Borat.
By the way, if Germans truly wanted to piss of the Italians, they should have just run this clip on permanent loop on TV.
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