“This morning, Milan awoke to find something a little strange. Just off of Via dei Mercanti, near the heart of the old city, a submarine has apparently pushed its way through the paving stones and damaged a nearby car.”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/submarine-appears-on-milan-street-2013-10#ixzz2hpWwd8Ib

I was shocked when I saw these pictures on the Internet! I mean, who has ever heard of a submarine breaking through the pavement in the heart of Milan? I can even see the famous Milan Cathedral in the background of the picture. Some bystanders guessed that there might be a secret ocean underneath the city of Milan.

Here is the original footage of the scene: watch?v=NFgQjTqKfOQ

The video received more than half a million views in less than two weeks. Well, never underestimate the power of social media. A few local tweets with #L1F3 (the name of the submarine) soon made this incident viral and far reaching. It was soon understood that the scene was created by an Italian insurance company, Europ Assistance Italia, for its “Protect Your Life” campaign.  The carefully executed stunt unfolded on October 1st was completed with a live reenactment meant to reinforce the idea of safeguarding yourself and your possessions against unforeseen events.

It is too soon to tell how much this campaign directly contributes to the sales of the insurance company, but the shock factor did make this local marketing scheme global. Who can say that this is not genius?

As I further looked into this stunt, the insurance company even created a website to back this campaign up. http://www.protectyourlife.it/