«What do I do atUniversity of Turin? I teach a method to communicate regardless of the scope of application. We could define it as the communicative legacy of Silvio Berlusconi». Antonio Palmieri63 years old, from Milan, in parliament from 2001 to 2022, yesterday took office in the Einaudi Campus as part of a series of meetings organized by the political marketing course of the master’s degree in public and political communication.
Today Palmieri no longer deals with politics, but he revealed to the students the “semi-secret” anecdotes on the slogans and choices that made the fortune of Forza Italia for three decades. From meetings in the kitchen of Arcore to the panned advertising campaigns, passing through the first “memes”.
What is your role now?
«Teaching how to communicate, regardless of the scope of application. I extrapolated from the work I was able to do alongside Berlusconi a “distillate”, a method that can always be applied. And not necessarily in politics. It can be valid for an association, for a need or for a product.”
Can it also be used without the Berlusconi “product”?
“Just think of all the parties that copied Berlusconi’s method.”
What do you mean?
«Take for example the choice to write the leader’s name in the logo. Now everyone does it, but who was the first to use it? To students, however, I don’t talk about politics, let’s be clear. This is just one of many ideas.”
The architects of Fi’s very rich electoral campaigns have been painted as a kind of Specter.
«No, we were a Renaissance workshop. There was the shop manager and a handful of craftsmen. The political communicator is not an evil spin doctor who cheats people, but he is the roof of a house. If the basis is missing, even the best communication can do little. This also applies in companies or in the third sector. We need a leader who provides consistency and is in tune with the context of the time. Without it you can’t go anywhere.”
What were the secrets of Berlusconi’s communication?
«The way he exercised leadership in our group. At Berlusconi’s table there was maximum freedom to express ideas and criticism, but a counter-proposal had to be brought. And then we studied the rules of the game. Doing it in time allows you to be prepared for any eventuality.”
Could the Knight really be contradicted?
«At the end of a meeting there was always a follow-up appointment. Often he would bring in the guest, whoever he was, and give him the slogan we had prepared. And he wasn’t looking for courtly answers, he wanted to understand if that campaign would work.”
Did he tell you jokes too?
«They served to ease tension. I think communication should be serious, but not serious. When the “Less taxes for Totti” meme came out, we didn’t worry and decided to invent the first contest to reward fake posters. And so we dampened the “against” campaign and conveyed the message.”
Are you the inventor of the giant posters?
“Not exactly. It was Berlusconi who chose to use the “3×6″ that his companies were already using. We brought marketing into politics and polls also became a means of communication.”
Sometimes, however, the campaigns were crushed
«I remember that a well-known advertiser came to Arcore for a fundraising campaign and proposed a transparent safe with an open door. Berlusconi politely replied that in his opinion the voter would perceive Forza Italia as an empty box and nothing was done about it. I often tell it to explain the importance of “reception”».
How much do social media matter?
«It is important that the leader has the right grammar for each environment. We need to focus on “cross-media”. Make a newsworthy post while gaining free visibility in traditional media. And in this way the journalist also recovers his role as “mediator”.
Will he return to Turin?
«I always come here willingly. Here there is a beautiful reality of young people who study politics. I think of the groups of Lorenzo Mauro and Cristopher Cepernich. It is a city that pays great attention to communication and I am happy to have shared my experience with university students.”
