They love a macaroni cheese pie but, according to advertising giants, the vision of Michelangelo’s David in the buff is too much to stomach for Glasgwegians.
An Italian restaurant in Scotland’s biggest city has been forced to change its adverts featuring the world-renowned sculpture after the ad business Global Media Group blocked them because of David’s nudity.
The designs commissioned by the Barolo restaurant were rejected from spaces in the subway over modesty concerns, according to the Glasgow Herald.
The poster showed the Renaissance sculpture holding a slice of pizza with the phrase: “It doesn’t get more Italian.”
Global runs the marketing space under its outdoor advertising division; the media group is well known for its portfolio of various radio stations including Capital, Heart and LBC.
A full reprint of the adverts with the sculpture cropped at the waist was then required for the posters to be displayed on the subway.
Mario Gizzi, the director of DRG Group, which runs Barolo and several other restaurants in Scotland, told the Glasgow Herald: “This is a globally recognised piece of art. It is taught in schools. People from all over the world travel to see it.
“It’s not the 1500s any more, it’s 2023. Are we really saying that the people of Glasgow can’t handle seeing a naked statue?
“Barolo is all about Italy’s classic cooking and Michelangelo’s David is one of the country’s most famous artworks – as the ad states, it doesn’t get more Italian than that.”
The 5.17-metre (17ft) statue, which depicts a naked David – the Biblical figure who kills the giant Goliath – was created at the start of the 16th century.
In March, the principal of a school in Florida resigned after students at a Christian charter school in Tallahassee were shown the statue of David, prompting at least one parent to complain that the children had been exposed to pornography.
Hope Carrasquilla resigned as principal of the Tallahassee Classical school after the campus’s governing board told her to either step down or be fired over parental complaints that came in after sixth-grade students were shown the 16th-century sculpture, one of the Renaissance’s most famous pieces of art.
DRG Group and Global have been approached for comment.
