From fortress to 5G: Tim rekindles the epoch-making slogan and looks to the future

It is the fate of the most successful slogans: they do not grow old; they simply change their profession. "A phone call prolongs life", starring Massimo Lopez, did not remain hanging in a showcase along with the tokens and the booths: it took its place in common parlance, made a career, survived the decades unscathed and is now being recalled. Tim brings its evolution back to television, starting from there, from that phrase that in 1993 the then Sip launched in a commercial that has become a national proverb.

What went on stage over the past few days with the re-proposal of the original commercial and yesterday during the Sanremo Festival with the new institutional Tim commercial, is a move that is both simple and astute. First the plunge into the collective memory, re-proposing the original; then the new spot, signed by director Paolo Genovese, which does not limit itself to quoting, but tries to give a new meaning, declined to the present day. Past and present in alternating montage, like two photographs of the same family taken thirty years apart: the clothes change, the house changes, but the look remains recognisable.

Certainly the same is the symbolic place chosen: the fortress. Not as a sanctuary, but as a scenery remade, updated, reinterpreted in a contemporary version, to narrate a present "made of technologies, artificial intelligence and new models of relationships", explains a Tim note. A nostalgia operation? The declared ambition is different: 'A tale that does not celebrate memory, but transforms it into vision'. The tale of an industrial metamorphosis.

The key concept is: transformation. Tim presents itself as an organism that grows with the country and changes its skin: "From Telco to integrated platform of services and solutions", within "an ecosystem that now includes not only connections, but also entertainment, energy and insurance". In other words: yesterday's telephone call becomes the basis (and the metaphor) for a world where connection is no longer just voice.

''A phone call lengthens your life,'' says Tim CEO Pietro Labriola, ''is a phrase that marked an era. It recounted an Italia that was beginning to connect and a company that was building infrastructure. Today we are not celebrating nostalgia. We tell of a transformation. Tim has changed with Italia and will not stop doing so. We have moved from a world where connectivity was just voice to an ecosystem where connectivity is the foundation on which we build value: ultra-fast connections and 5G, artificial intelligence, entertainment content, digital services ranging from energy to insurance. All integrated into a single platform. That is why we have made courageous choices, redesigned our perimeter, and accelerated on innovation". The future 'is built with vision and determination. And we are ready to lead it'.