Home » Alfa Romeo CEO Now Just Openly Trolling The Italian Government

Alfa Romeo CEO Now Just Openly Trolling The Italian Government

Milano Map Ts
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The internet’s made communication weird. From always-on expectations to bots for customer service to social media algorithms delivering the thoughts of the loudest assholes imaginable directly to your eyeballs, it’s been nothing short of a paradigm shift. Adding a new level of weirdness? The CEO of Alfa Romeo is now trolling the Italian government on social media.

In case you haven’t been keeping track, Alfa Romeo recently unveiled its compact electrified crossover on Stellantis’ eCMP platform, and the original plan was to call it the Milano. Well, it turns out the Italian government wasn’t very happy about a car built in Poland being named after an Italian city, so it claimed the name to be illegal. Alfa Romeo then fired back with the cattiest press release imaginable, all while changing the name of the crossover to Junior.

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Well, Alfa Romeo isn’t done yet, because CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato recently fired a snot rocket in the Italian government’s general direction by posting an image of a map on LinkedIn. Can you see something that shouldn’t be there?

Alfa Romeo Trolling 2

 

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Yep, plastered right where a label for the city of Milano would go, sits the word “Junior.” Petty? Absolutely. Entertaining? Unquestionably. Welcome to the extremely online age, where the nuances of soft power are blasted to smithereens by Twitter beefs and professional trolling is a thing. Childish? Perhaps, but so is this whole situation, so it’s going to be interesting watching it play out.

Believe it or not, this is actually the second time Alfa Romeo had to give up using the Milano name on a recently announced car. In 2009, the company was launching a new hatchback that was supposed to use the Milano name, but Automotive News Europe reported that Alfa Romeo pulled that name at the last minute due to labor sensitivities. As the outlet claimed:

Alfa workers in the area around Milan (Milano in Italian) are upset that Alfa owner Fiat S.p.A. planned to use the city’s name on a car that would arrive as Alfa was shutting down its operations in the area where it was founded 99 years ago.

In case you’re wondering, that hatchback ended up being called the Giulietta. Oh well, maybe the third time’s the charm for the use of Milano as a car name in the 21st century.

(Photo credits: Alfa Romeo, LinkedIn screenshot)

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Norek Koss
Norek Koss
6 months ago

Italians have too many communists in their government. This beautiful plug-in car should have a dignified name

Ian Marvin
Ian Marvin
6 months ago
Reply to  Norek Koss

This was literally from a right wing government minister.

Norek Koss
Norek Koss
6 months ago
Reply to  Ian Marvin

so what, corporate rules

Timbales
Timbales
6 months ago

they could have said they were naming the car for actress Alyssa Milano

Brunsworks
Brunsworks
6 months ago
Reply to  Timbales

That would have gotten them sued by Disney.

Dogisbadob
Dogisbadob
6 months ago

They should call it Sausalito or Chessmen instead 😛

What if they had just changed the spelling? Milono, Milanno, Malano, etc.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
6 months ago
Reply to  Dogisbadob

Milania.

I_drive_a_truck
I_drive_a_truck
6 months ago

No.

Last edited 6 months ago by I_drive_a_truck
Manwich Sandwich
Manwich Sandwich
6 months ago

Or maybe Melania… after Melania Trump!

LOL

William Sheldon
William Sheldon
6 months ago

And yet, the Mercury Milan went about its business unfettered by name changes. I bought the top “limited” trim with the manual transmission new in 2006. Put 260,000 miles on it. Never once in all those miles did the car make me feel/think/imagine Italy

Cam.man67
Cam.man67
6 months ago

I’m assuming the Mercury Milan was thus named after Milan, OH.

Thomas Bell
Thomas Bell
6 months ago
Reply to  Cam.man67

#COTD

ES
ES
6 months ago
Reply to  Cam.man67

nah, Milan Michigan (My-Lin), Romulus’ little brother.

Spikedlemon
Spikedlemon
6 months ago

Used for transporting fine California Champagne.

OttosPhotos
OttosPhotos
6 months ago

I don’t understand the fuss with naming a car after a cookie, yummy though the cookie might be.

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
6 months ago
Reply to  OttosPhotos

Man, I want some Pepperidge Farm cookies now!

Dogisbadob
Dogisbadob
6 months ago
Reply to  OttosPhotos

+1

to me, Milano means cookies 😀

Mr E
Mr E
6 months ago

Make it an anagram.

Introducing the new Alfa Romeo MONIAL. For added snark, make the ‘I’ a middle finger.

I_drive_a_truck
I_drive_a_truck
6 months ago
Reply to  Mr E

Introducing the Alfa Romeo Mi Lano! It’s Italian for My Lano.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago
Reply to  Mr E

It’s an Alfa, so ALIMON(y) would be fitting

Mr E
Mr E
6 months ago

A LIMON*. How did I miss that? 🙂

(*lemon)

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
6 months ago

A bigger troll would be to hold the big, swanky, international product launch event for it in the sleepy mining town of Junior, West Virginia

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
6 months ago

If I were Alfa CEO, I might be a bit more circumspect about tweaking a far-right government that’s teetering on the brink of resurrecting Mussolini’s Blackshirts.

SNL-LOL Jr
SNL-LOL Jr
6 months ago
Reply to  Canopysaurus

Meh they were all bark no bite.
Il Douche went running to Hitler like a little bitch before Monty even got his toes wet.

MY LEG!
MY LEG!
6 months ago
Reply to  Canopysaurus

The last successful Italian vampire was Mussolini. He was the only Italian that could hang upside down!

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
6 months ago
Reply to  MY LEG!

With a little help.

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
6 months ago
Reply to  Canopysaurus

The Blackshirts definitely favored Alfa Romeos, though.

Andrea Petersen
Andrea Petersen
6 months ago

It reheats the marinara in my heart every time an Italian brand gets catty on the internet. This is the kind of shade that I thrive on.

JIHADJOE
JIHADJOE
6 months ago

I still think the ultimate troll would have been to cancel the Alfa Romeo version and sell it instead as a Dodge rebadge.

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
6 months ago
Reply to  JIHADJOE

And call it the Dodge Milano.

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
6 months ago

I hate social media, so I would never have seen this without Autopian bringing it up. I laughed. Good on ya, Alfa Romeo.

SNL-LOL Jr
SNL-LOL Jr
6 months ago

Too soon

Alexk98
Alexk98
6 months ago

I really wish they did a favor and redesigned the car, instead of changing the name

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
6 months ago
Reply to  Alexk98

That’s probably the real reason the government objected to the name. It had nothing to do with Poland.

Shooting Brake
Shooting Brake
6 months ago
Reply to  Alexk98

Ooof, too true.

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