Mazetti

“The tiny agency watched by the big agencies.” — Monocle

Welcome,

In 2012 we filled a small plane with one thousand teddy bears and flew into Belarus, under the radar, without permission.

The dictator was furious. Two generals were fired. The humiliation triggered a rearmament of Russia’s western air defences with modern S-400 missiles.

Symbols are powerful.

Since Belarus we have worked below the surface. We use symbols and myths to tell stories. (Do you think sky‑bears was a coincidence?)

We’ve put WHAM! at the #1 spot and sent Ruben to win in Cannes. Twice. And stranger things.

Our office is in Venice, Italy. We take two assignments per year.

Mazetti Srl, Venice

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The sky-bear is one of humanity’s oldest symbols. Across the northern hemisphere, unrelated peoples looked at the same seven stars and saw a bear. Mi’kmaq, Algonquin, Cherokee, and others all have versions of a celestial story tied to those stars. As did the Romans, who called it Ursa Major. Suetonius writes that the emperor Augustus was born with birthmarks corresponding in form, order, and number with the stars of the Bear in the heavens.

But in no land has the bear been more central to the cultural soul than Russia. In ancient Slavic culture, the earthly bear was so deeply tied to divine and natural power that its true name was taboo. The original Proto-Indo-European word was lost because people believed speaking it would summon the beast. Instead, they used the euphemism “medved” (медведь)—literally, “honey-eater.” Today, the Russian state remains inextricably bound to the symbol: it is the official logo of the ruling political party, United Russia.