Ariston signs up ‘arty’ director for new push

The Italian white goods giant Merloni has hired top German film director Wim Wenders to make a series of new commercials.

Wenders, who directed Paris Texas, has made three ads for Merloni’s Ariston brand. They will break in Italy on September 17 and will then be rolled out across Europe.

The commercials give the Ariston brand a surreal twist and revolve around artistic masterpieces. One features a Michelangelo-style fresco in which the heavenly figures undress. Their clothes then float down to an Ariston washing machine.

Another depicts an Arcadian scene in which images on a dusty plate become animated when put through an Ariston dishwasher. The third ad centres around a “Florentine Pre-Raphaelite” dining scene which comes alive after the cooker is switched on. Merloni has yet to set a date for the release of the ads in the UK.

“In the world of appliances there are too many ‘mumsy’ ads,” says Guliano Gnagnatti, managing director of Merloni Domestic Appliances.

He says the new ads are as unconventional and artistic as Ariston’s previous commercials. These featured a couple making love on a washing machine.