Rolex accuses Italian PM of sullying watchmaker's image

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/rolex-accuses-italian-pm-renzi-reputation-watchmaker

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The head of Rolex in Italy has accused Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, of sullying the watchmaker’s reputation after he suggested that protesters and vandals in Milan were spoilt Rolex-wearing brats.

In full page ads in major Italian newspapers on Wednesday, Gianpaolo Marini demanded an apology from Renzi and interior minister Angelino Alfano after both politicians seized on a photograph published in newspapers over the weekend that purported to show one of the masked anti-Expo protesters who vandalised Milan on Friday wearing a Rolex.

“I have to express my profound regret and disappointment for the association implied by your words – that there is a link between window-breakers and the fact of wearing a Rolex watch on your wrist,” Marini wrote.

No Expo col Rolex: FOTO Facebook. Figli di papà o infiltrati? (blitzquotidiano.it) http://t.co/dpfd8BdeIa pic.twitter.com/p8Dqk2n3hZ

He questioned the quality of the photograph and video, saying it was “highly improbable” that the watch could be identified as a Rolex, much less an authentic Rolex.

“Unfortunately the echo of your words was extraordinarily vast and produced the unacceptable juxtaposition of the image of Rolex with the devastation of Milan and the universe of subversive violence,” Marini said.

The photo of the supposed Rolex vandal was a convenient political symbol for Renzi and Alfano, who used the image to discredit the protests that erupted on the day of Expo’s highly anticipated opening on Friday.

Speaking in Bologna, Renzi thanked friends in his Democratic party for cleaning up Milan’s streets while “those with Rolexes were destroying the storefronts”. Alfano referred to the protesters as figli di papa (rich kids) in hoods who were intent on destroying Milan.

The protests were an embarrassing, though not an unexpected spectacle on Expo’s opening day. Renzi had repeatedly hailed the opening of the world fair as a great moment of pride for Italy, but his statements were overshadowed by the disruptions caused by the protests, in which a number of cars were set on fire and masked demonstrators threw stones at police in riot gear, broke windows, and spray-painted store fronts.

Rolex did not apparently take offence earlier this year when the Swiss watchmaker was in the Italian news for an entirely different reason. A businessman, Stefano Perotti, was accused of giving the son of former cabinet minister Maurizio Lupi a Rolex as a gift. Lupi has not been accused of wrongdoing but the Rolex incident, among other associations with parties accused of corruption, forced his resignation.