I’m really liking this whole Italian family style ad campaign. Obviously, it’s hyperbolic, but it rings more true than not, so I venture to call this a success.

If it were real life, most of these people wouldn’t be as attractive. I like that Dolce and Gabbana are bringing it back. Getting real with their target audience with getting in touch with the Italian thing. It’s a good shtick and I genuinely enjoy seeing these ads as I sift through the various magazines I’ve subscribed for that I hardly get a chance to read…

As far as fashion photography goes, they’re alive! They’re emotional, charming and festive. A good job well done. And looking through the photos, I can recognize the types of relationships they’re trying to depict. I have relationships like the one’s depicted here with various cousins, aunts, uncles, immediate family members.

I think the one that really strikes a cord is the sixth one down. The one where it looks like a mother is telling her son to not do something. Her thumb and index finger are touching which is something I experienced as a kid when I was just about to do something seriously annoying. This would be accompanied with something like “I swear to god. I will kill you.” Seems violent, but this is exactly the expulsive passionate language the Mediterranean is comfortable utilizing. It even goes beyond comfort, it’s preference. And it was moments like this, index-thumb touching yelling moments that sent shivers down my spine.

Even now, my cousins who have kids will do it and I still feel the shivers when they reprimand their own children this way. Which they do… as I probably will. I know there’s nothing I can do about it and I have to witness the judgement and punishment encapsulated in that moment. But, as I and countless others born into these highly emotionally intense societies, they get over it. Within seconds. Life moves on and you try not to be relegated to shame next time.