Carosello, Italian cinema advertising: Fernet Branca psychedelic ad, 1974

Fernet Branca is an after dinner digestive drink in Italy that is now not as popular as it was once.
In the 70’s however, it was very fashionable and most people who drink it now picked up the habit years ago.

Above is a Carosello or cinema advertising video with a musical theme from Franco Godi.

After the jump is another of his videos, nicknamed “The King of Jingles”.
Made in Milan, Fernet Branca comes from a secret Italian recipe and is the amalgam of names ‘fer net’, in Milanese dialect meaning “clean iron”, and the surname of the woman who invented it.

It is drunk after a meal and is part of a large range of amaro in Italy: after dinner liquors purported to help you digest.
I have never tasted it as the very idea it was once a medicine turns me off.

But I have seen plenty of oldies drinking it after dinner, so maybe it could be Italy’s answer to old age and longevity.