There is no way the motor vehicle industry will ever top this two-minute spot for Lambretta scooters from the ‘60s. It is that good.

The commercial was performed by the Italian vocal quartet Quartetto Cetra and filmed to be shown in movie theaters: color televisions were not in widespread use in Italy at the time. Here’s an approximate translation of the rapid fire lyrics:

“Professors, what are we going to invent today?”



“The automobile!”



“But that’s already been invented.”



“Will we have to invent it again?”



“No.”



“Let’s move on then.”



“What to invent then? What to invent?”



“Let’s invent the train.”



“But that’s already been invented and they say it almost flew.”



“Let’s move on then.”



“What to invent then? What to invent?”



“Let’s invent something that will make you look, something ingenious, something dynamic, elegant, and powerful. Let’s invent everything to make people happy. Let’s take some wheels and place them here, a nice and powerful engine, that will go here, then some nice headlights, a steering rack and a horn with a unique sound, it sounds like this: beep–beep. You will hear it on every road and it will herald the arrival of this new scooter family. It will also have disk brakes, disk brakes! Let’s mix these all together and here: a high-quality scooter which is also safe and fast, the Lambretta will make everyone happy.”



“What shall we invent after the Lambretta?”



“Let’s invent Lambre-Twist!”



“You can do the Lambre–Twist in a wool skirt, you can do it wearing a short ponytail, you can do the Lambre-Twist on white sand beaches and in the Indian night. Everybody does the Lambre-Twist. The guitarist, the drummer, the trumpeter, the bassist, they all do the Lambre-Twist. On the beach, it’s Lambre-Twist, on the way to work, it’s Lambre-Twist, on the way to the church to get married, it’s Lambre-Twist.”


It makes you wish for a Lambretta, doesn’t it?

Photo Credit: Juan Felipe Rubio. Special thanks to Natalie Polgar for her help in making sense of the lyrics.