An Italian funeral home handed out flyers advertising its services at a ‘March of Liberation’ rally for COVID-deniers in Rome on Saturday.
On Twitter, the Taffo funeral home shared a photo of a man handing out flyers at the rally and simply said: “Flyer for the March of Liberation! Business is Business.”
The organizers of the rally say it was held in protest of the government, the European Union, and neoliberalism, and while organizers said that they do not deny the existence of the coronavirus, they denounce its political use and appear to deny the severity of the disease.
Attendees of the rally also protested the mask mandate and the “health dictatorship,” according to Open Online.
In a video from the rally, attendees can be seen shouting at the man handing out flyers. While the flyering campaign was (understandably) not well received at the rally among the COVID-deniers, the stunt gained plenty of attention on social media.
On Facebook, Taffo’s post about the flyering stunt amassed more than 23,000 likes and gained thousands more on Twitter.
But this campaign is not the first of Taffo’s to go viral, as the funeral services company has gained thousands of social media followers through its sarcastic marketing stunts.
Taffo Funeral Services has become infamous across Italy for its irreverent approach to discussing death. But the dark humor of its social media campaigns has gained Taffo more than 254,000 followers on Facebook, more than 74,000 followers on Instagram, and more than 25,000 on Twitter.
The flyer stunt at the rally in Rome is the latest marketing campaign by Taffo’s social media manager, Riccardo Pirrone, who has written a book about the digital marketing strategy behind the Taffo brand.
In response to the demonstration held in Rome on Saturday, the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, said on Twitter on Friday: “Tomorrow’s demonstration in Rome is a slap in the face to those who have experienced the gravity of the COVID emergency at the forefront. For this, I thank most of the Romans who respect the rules with great responsibility.”
According to Johns Hopkins University, Italy has 354,950 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 36,166 deaths, the sixth-highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in the world behind the U.S., Brazil, India, Mexico, and the U.K.
In Italy, social distancing of a meter is required across the country and masks are mandatory in public spaces, including outdoors. Additionally, many venues, such as restaurants, are asking customers to provide their contact details.
