The Rubber Oscar: Pirelli Actress Endorsers
The 2018 Oscar awards for motion pictures were handed out on the night of 4 March. Only a few famous actresses – some of them with links to the history of Pirelli – have had the opportunity to win these prizes. Pirelli actually worked with great names such as Paola Borboni in the early years of the twentieth century. She never won the prize, however, partly because she preferred theatre to cinema, but also because she was famous before the Oscars were even invented. Indeed, she referred to herself as “the first actress of the century”, for she was born on 1 January 1900. She was twenty-seven when the painter Mario Bazzi portrayed her for an advertisement for Pirelli Hevea galoshes. Already a lively and unconventional star, she showed off the magical rubber overshoes that would protect her precious footwear from the rain. She was, however, only the first in a long line of actresses who have appeared in Pirelli advertisements over the years.
In December 1950, Lucia Bosè was not yet twenty but she was already famous. She had won the Miss Italia contest three years previously and had already been directed by Michelangelo Antonioni: a star on a flight to success. Everything she touched automatically became classy and desirable. Like the Pirelli suitcase in Vinilpelle, an artificial leather, that the actress promoted on the back cover of Pirelli magazine no. 6 of 1950, in a photo by Federico Patellani.
In 1952, at the age of twenty-six, Norma Jean Baker had already had a turbulent life and, more than anything, a tough time achieving success in the cinema, but in the end she had become Marilyn Monroe. She was the “blonde bombshell”, mid-way between the unfortunate Norma Jean and Marilyn the star, who smiled on the beach in the photo for the 1952 advertisement for Pirelli Lastex swimming costumes. The magical Italian-American elastic thread was worn by the actress who, more than anyone else, was to represent the ideal of beauty in the history of cinema.
More than forty years would go by before another splendid blonde film star would appear in Pirelli advertisements. The year was 1993 and the star was Sharon Stone, Catherin Tramell in Basic Instinct, who the previous year had wowed audiences around the world. In the Pirelli spot – “If you’re going to drive, drive” – the American actress comes down from the plane and lightly touches a Pirelli tyre as she gets into the car: the video instantly became “Driving Instinct” for everyone.
The Oscar went to her, to Sophia Loren, the first actress to win the famous statue in a film that was not in English. Even though she never posed as an endorser for Pirelli advertisements, it was she who appeared on the covers of Vado e Torno magazine in the 1960s, and then returned as a protagonist, looking magnificent at seventy-seven, in the 2007 edition of the world-famous “The Cal”.
The 2018 Oscar awards for motion pictures were handed out on the night of 4 March. Only a few famous actresses – some of them with links to the history of Pirelli – have had the opportunity to win these prizes. Pirelli actually worked with great names such as Paola Borboni in the early years of the twentieth century. She never won the prize, however, partly because she preferred theatre to cinema, but also because she was famous before the Oscars were even invented. Indeed, she referred to herself as “the first actress of the century”, for she was born on 1 January 1900. She was twenty-seven when the painter Mario Bazzi portrayed her for an advertisement for Pirelli Hevea galoshes. Already a lively and unconventional star, she showed off the magical rubber overshoes that would protect her precious footwear from the rain. She was, however, only the first in a long line of actresses who have appeared in Pirelli advertisements over the years.
In December 1950, Lucia Bosè was not yet twenty but she was already famous. She had won the Miss Italia contest three years previously and had already been directed by Michelangelo Antonioni: a star on a flight to success. Everything she touched automatically became classy and desirable. Like the Pirelli suitcase in Vinilpelle, an artificial leather, that the actress promoted on the back cover of Pirelli magazine no. 6 of 1950, in a photo by Federico Patellani.
In 1952, at the age of twenty-six, Norma Jean Baker had already had a turbulent life and, more than anything, a tough time achieving success in the cinema, but in the end she had become Marilyn Monroe. She was the “blonde bombshell”, mid-way between the unfortunate Norma Jean and Marilyn the star, who smiled on the beach in the photo for the 1952 advertisement for Pirelli Lastex swimming costumes. The magical Italian-American elastic thread was worn by the actress who, more than anyone else, was to represent the ideal of beauty in the history of cinema.
More than forty years would go by before another splendid blonde film star would appear in Pirelli advertisements. The year was 1993 and the star was Sharon Stone, Catherin Tramell in Basic Instinct, who the previous year had wowed audiences around the world. In the Pirelli spot – “If you’re going to drive, drive” – the American actress comes down from the plane and lightly touches a Pirelli tyre as she gets into the car: the video instantly became “Driving Instinct” for everyone.
The Oscar went to her, to Sophia Loren, the first actress to win the famous statue in a film that was not in English. Even though she never posed as an endorser for Pirelli advertisements, it was she who appeared on the covers of Vado e Torno magazine in the 1960s, and then returned as a protagonist, looking magnificent at seventy-seven, in the 2007 edition of the world-famous “The Cal”.
