English outrages Italians!

ROME: It gave the world the linguistic sophistication of Latin and the poetry of Dante, but Italy has had its pride dented by the increasing use of English in prominent publicity campaigns. Conservative politicians and commentators are indignant that the Italian navy — or Marina Militare — has adopted as its latest recruiting slogan “Be Cool, join the Navy”, using English rather than Italian. The phrase appears on posters and billboards in a new recruitment campaign, along with images of Italian warships ploughing through the waves and commandos equipped as underwater frogmen.
Fabio Rampelli, an MP with the Right-wing Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, said the use of English was unpatriotic and unacceptable.
“I ask myself how it came into the mind of the Italian navy to launch, with our money, a campaign in the English language to recruit young people,” he told parliament. Basilio Catanoso, an MP from Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-Right Forza Italia party, said “it provokes anger, disgust and sadness to see the Marina Militare transformed into ‘the navy’.”
Annamaria Testa, an advertising consultant and communications expert, told La Repubblica newspaper that there were “plenty of equivalents” in Italian to the phrase “be cool”.
Employing an English slogan to drum up sailors for the Italian navy was “like putting ketchup on macaroni”, she added. There were also critical comments on the Italian navy’s website, with one person wondering whether the adoption of English amounted to “war reparations” for Italian attacks on Royal Navy ships during the Second World War.