Lamborghini removes contested photos of Letizia Battaglia from social media

In the end Lamborghini had to give in to pressure and remove the disputed photographs by Letizia Battaglia taken for the With Italy, For Italy - 21 views for a new drive campaign, launched by the carmaker a few days ago. In fact, the company commissioned twenty photographers to portray as many regions of Italy to support the country’s revitalization “at a time of great challenges such as the current one,” the company explained in a note, choosing the famous photojournalist Letizia Battaglia as the twenty-first photographer as a special guest. The artist took a number of shots depicting little girls with the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ on the streets of Palermo: however, the shots have received a continuous barrage of criticism on social media, due to the trinomial girls-luxury car-Palermo, which many did not like.

Yesterday, even the mayor of the Sicilian capital, Leoluca Orlando, took issue with a Facebook post that received many positive comments. “The Municipality of Palermo,” Orlando wrote, “has not authorized Lamborghini’s campaign, which is currently present on social networks in ways that we do not agree with. I therefore ask the company to suspend it. The company has submitted a request to carry out ’a large photographic project with a cultural and social purpose to celebrate the beauty of Italy, exalting its qualities and identity,’ but we did not have the details of this ’project,’ which we only found out yesterday after the advertising campaign was launched. Our administration has always expressed, beyond the judgment on artistic expression, its opposition to the use of the female body, even more so of girls, for commercial messages and advertising communication. This has nothing to do with art and its expressions, which it is certainly not our goal to syndicate, all the more so since it is the work of Letizia Battaglia, whose work we are honored as her fellow citizens for the work she has done and is doing.”

Following Orlando’s post last night was Lamborghini’s decision to withdraw the photographs from social media. The reasons were made by the house in a note: "We have decided to remove the posts with Letizia Battaglia’s photos made for the With Italy, for Italy project," the house explained in a note taken up by Corriere, “in response to the request of the Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando. We regret that the images may have offended the sensitivities of Palermo’s citizens, but in this regard we would like to clarify that the general initiative was born as an act of Lamborghini’s love for its country, to support its revitalization at a time of great challenges such as the current one. When we decided to involve Letizia Battaglia we were aware of the strength and power of her images, she who, in her long career as a photographer, has dealt with topical and always very sensitive issues. But, for those who know her, it is well renowned that her art and subjects are strongly focused on portraits of young female figures, which for her represent a vision of dreams and hope for rebirth. In a spirit of continuity to her photographic style, Battaglia has thus decided to interpret her beloved Palermo together with a Lamborghini, an accessory element and not the protagonist of the shots, and little girls, as a symbol of hope for a new world, the same one pursued by the artist throughout the years of her important photographic commitment.”

Lamborghini removes contested photos of Letizia Battaglia from social media

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