by Enzo Coccia
A few months ago, some colleagues and I met in a restaurant at Borgo Marinari in Naples. We were nine pizzaioli but, above all, nine friends. We found ourselves talking about our lives, our profession, our children, the expectations, the future, the tradition. And more than anything else, we found the profound connection and harmony that only the real friends can experience: in short, our being a group or, in the social media jargon, a non-virtual community.
And as always happens, most decisions are made around the table. There, more than elsewhere, with the help of good food, fine wine and a relaxed atmosphere, the best project are born. So, forgetting all the rest and ignoring our professional competitiveness, with a tasty dish of spaghetti with clams and fresh frittura di paranza (deep-fried fishes) in front of us, we decided all together to do something for Christmas, in the name of charity and solidarity.
Without even realizing it, in a moment of total conviviality, between laughs and more serious thoughts, thinking about the ways to help others, it arose the idea of the calendar. With hints of irony and despite the many commitments of each of us, we posed, smiling, and were photographed united by a single common denominator: the Neapolitan Pizza.
The calendar, called exactly “One Pizza”, the one that connects us beyond our many differences, was realized to support “Re-Life, children’s tech project”, a fundraising project which has the aim to finance 15 pediatric intensive care units at AORN Santobono Pausilipon of Naples.
No sponsors, no advs for 12 months completely self-financed, in which, in a highly original and funny way, we are portrayed, out of our pizza places, through Salvio Parisi, photographer and journalist, shots.
After having taken the photos and once they were published, we had to let people know what we had done. We decided to make some phone calls to bloggers and journalists, without adopting a precise communication strategy, having neither the means nor the technical knowledge to do it.
The result? The initiative was presented at the Capodimonte Museum last Thursday, December 15th, to a bare audience. What was missing was precisely the team spirit of some insiders. Solidarity means also this: make ourselves available to other people and act, all together, as messengers so as to spread the word and tell more and more people about this important fundraising. But, this did not happen. So, we will continue, as we have always done, with the word of mouth marketing, the most effective form of promotion, by asking our pizzerias’ customers to give us a help with their donations. That’s all!
