'Who Vespa eats apples'

Piaggio's famous 1969-1970 advertising campaign, designed by Gilberto Filippetti of the Leader agency, associated the Vespa with a young, free and transgressive lifestyle. The apple symbolised, in fact, the 'fruit of sin', suggesting that those riding the Vespa were modern and attractive. "Vespare" was synonymous with freedom: the combination with the apple (sin/transgression) was intended to make the Vespa an icon not only of transport, but of identity and youthful rebellion. The campaign was so successful that in 1971 it evolved into the catchphrase 'Melacompro' and, in 1983, Vasco Rossi quoted the motto in his song 'Bollicine' (1983) with the variant 'chi non vespa più e mangia le pere' (who doesn't vespa anymore and eats pears).