“Could you please teach me to cook?”, a shy Marilyn Monroe asked the most beloved Italian pasta craftsman ever. “And you, could you please teach me to act?” replied an even more embarrassed Giovanni Rana, pleased to have seduced the most charming blonde girl in the world thanks to his tortellini. More than 20 years have passed since this memorable dialogue in which Giovanni Rana dreamed of acting in Hollywood, to propose his tortellini to the most famous movie star ever. Now, this dream has come true.
TU VUO’ FA L’AMERICANO – Mr. Giovanni didn’t even need an interpreter at the Los Angeles Studios. The language of fork and rolling pin is therefore the best one. Better than Esperanto, it’s the natural language of gourmets on both sides of the Atlantic! Today is a great day for the history of Giovanni Rana. It’s the day when the dream of his life – the American dream – comes true… But if being born “in Italy” was maybe a limitation for Renato Carosone, it did turn out to be a value for Mr. Giovanni, no doubt. That’s because this bakery’s shop boy, born in 1937, is able to make Mericani (Americans, as the people of Veneto would say) dream of Italian flavors, memories, squares and tables full of eager joy.
LOOK THE COMPLETE SPOT FOR THE US MARKET
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“GIAN LUCA DID IT RIGHT” – “It was an unforgettable and hilarious experience” Giovanni Rana said. “And that’s two American dreams made true: bringing my products in the USA and acting in Hollywood! But my favorite role is that of an everyday stuffed pasta craftsman, the best job in the world. I’ve been making tortellini with love for more than 50 years, and there’s no better satisfaction than being on people’s tables. That’s the place where people’s life is. All this would have been impossible without the perfect synergy between me and my son Gian Luca. When he talked about internationalization for the first time – 20 years ago – I couldn’t believe my ears. But he did it right and took me in 38 different countries”.
FROM EUROPE TO USA – “The first foreign country for my project has been Spain” says Rana company Managing Director Gian Luca Rana, “but every time we conquered a new European market, I knew USA were getting closer. Less than four years after breaking into the American market, we gained such a distribution capacity to start advertising in all USA. Today is a day of celebration for everyone: my father, the town of San Giovanni Lupatoto, Made in Italy and the families of our 2500 employees in the world”.
RANA’S TORTELLINI MAKE LIFE BETTER, EVEN IN PRISON…
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COWBOY JOE – Hollywood is eating and smiling heartily, giving an enthusiastic welcome to a completely Italian, humble, brave and self-deprecating Giovanni Rana. In all his commercials – a series of funny gags – he keeps trying to make American people taste his tortellini. This happens in the most unlikely and unexpected circumstances: Texan cowboy, dressed in an underwater, ready for a marathon in a red tracksuit (a Tenenbaum Ben Stiller’s extralarge version), even attorney in a maximum security prison. Giovanni Rana fears nothing to fulfill his patriotic mission: to bring the freshest Italian pasta in every corner of ‘Merica.
RANA’S FACE (AND HOME) – The story doesn’t end here. Giovanni Rana has gone beyond using his face – just like he has always used to do in the Italian commercials. In the USA he used his house as well. Every spot ends with an invitation to all the American people: “Come and visit me at home, for real!” A food lottery that will make Giovanni Rana open the doors of his house for 300 American guests. They will visit the beloved Verona, the factory in San Giovanni Lupatoto and they will certainly meet Giovanni Rana, eat together with him and learn some words in the Veneto’s dialect. In fact, Giovanni Rana is not an actor, he’s just a real man, sincere, curious, hungry for dreams even more than for tortellini.
BACKSTAGE
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