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Campari defined the time and manner of a truly Italian ritual in the early twentieth

century, one that would take over the world within a few decades: the aperitivo.

Next to it, cocktails made with Campari Bitter Page 112: Campari bottles on display in a shop window in Milan.

As the basic ingredient of some of the most iconic cocktails Gaspare moved to Milan with his family in 1862 and opened
(the Negroni and the Americano just to name a couple), Campari his first bar. A few years later, in 1867, he moved it to the new Gal-
defined the time and manner of a truly Italian ritual in the early leria Vittorio Emanuele II, between Piazza Duomo and Piazza del-
twentieth century, one that would take over the world within a few la Scala: business was going well and everybody wants a taste of
decades: the aperitivo. But Campari also represents an example of his Bitter.
the union between art and advertisement in the early twentieth Gaspare passed away in 1882 and his wife Letizia Galli kept
century, leading to the creation of revolutionary ad campaigns that the business on its feet, running both the bar and the distillery in
contributed to defining Italian Style and that combined genius and the laboratory. Davide Campari, the fourth of their five children,
innovation in communication. A prime example of this is Passione went abroad to pursue his studies and hone his skills in Bordeaux,
Rossa (Red Passion), the slogan from the mid Nineties, which actu- the wine capital of the Alps. He returned to Milan in 1886, he took
ally has a much older origin. To explore this slogan, we have to step the reins of the family distillery and, in just a short time, studied a
back in time. precise strategy to make the business grow: he decided to focus en-
Gaspare Campari was born in Cassolnovo, near Pavia, in tirely on two products (Bitters and Cordials) and, above all, to take
1828. He was the youngest of ten siblings and started working at full advantage of advertising. The first newspaper ad campaign was
a young age in Turin’s cafés, where he learned the art of distilling printed in 1889, while the first advertising posters created by Gi-
liquors guided by his talent and a discerning palate. In 1850, he useppe Mora make their debut in 1894.
moved to the nearby city of Novara, where he took over the Caffè This is the beginning of a story that reaches the present day.
dell’Amicizia and, in 1860, he created the “Bitter all’uso d’Hollan- Davide understood before everyone else that the image and suc-
da” (lit. “Dutch Bitter”), which would soon be simply known as cess of a product are influenced by communication strategies. As
Bitter Campari. an art lover, an experimenter, and a visionary, he relied on the fa-

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