It has the look of something that could catch on -- and organizers claim it already has. Italy's mighty television networks were yesterday facing their first nationwide TV viewers' strike.
Under the uncompromising slogan "Television is Nasty and Bad," it aims to tempt at least 400,000 people away from primetime weekend viewing. The strike's logo is made up of the multi-colored vertical bars shown by an untuned set.
"We want to say to people that there are better ways of spending their free time than to stay home staring at television," said Anna Spreafico, a spokeswoman for Esterni, the Milan cultural association behind the initiative.
The organizers have negotiated discounts with museums, galleries, theaters, bars and restaurants for anyone who turns up between yesterday and tomorrow carrying a TV remote control, the symbol of mindless telly addiction.
Esterni, set up to promote live events and personal encounters to counter modern, media-induced alienation, has been holding viewers' strikes in Milan for seven years. During that period it claims to have increased the number of protesters elevenfold.
This year it hopes the strike will be felt as far away as Sicily. In Rome, the conveners have joined forces with a council-backed organization that already offers discounts to young people for a range of cultural activities, from visits to theaters to guided tours of the Colosseum. The FAI, Italy's equivalent of the National Trust, is offering remote-bearers cut-price entry to stately homes and parks.
Among the offerings strikers will miss will be Wrestling Smackdown; a rerun of the venerable detective series Colombo; Italy's version of the Wheel of Fortune, and Amici, a reality show based in a drama school. Unfortunately for the protest organizers, this weekend's programming for the state-owned RAI includes a Telethon to raise cash for charities ahead of Christmas.
The former foreign minister, Susanna Agnelli, accused them of a "grave lack of sensibility." But the band leader Renzo Arbore, who for years was the partner of one of Italian TV's most popular presenters, said he was "wholly in agreement with the strike."
Parties and concerts have been arranged in cities to try to distract people from the box. Spreafico said entry in Milan would be restricted to those carrying a working remote: "If they bring the television set itself, we'll let them in free."
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