Italian-Canadians lashed out Monday at Rocco Rossi’s new mafia-themed ad campaign, which labels the mayoral candidate a “wise guy” and tells voters to “fuggetaboutit.”

“It sounded like an East Side Mario’s ad, quite honestly,” said Valentino Assenza, whose parents immigrated from Sicily. “I think the Italian-Canadian community was misrepresented . . . I was undecided, but him putting that ad out definitely confirmed that I’m not going to be giving my vote to him.”

The new campaign includes print ads featuring the words “wise guy,” “goodfella” and “bocce balls,” as well as TV and radio spots. The ads were launched as a new poll shows Rossi’s support stagnating at 9.7 per cent, a distant fourth place.

“There have been a lot of Hail Marys tossed into the air by the various candidates hoping to get more attention, to get a breakthrough, to somehow puncture the lead that Rob Ford has,” said Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University. “It does smack of desperation, it does smack of attention-seeking overdrive, and I don’t think it’ll be successful.”

Rossi, whose parents immigrated to Canada from Italy in the 1950s, said he used the stereotypes in his campaign to flip them around and give them new meaning. “Wise guy” is about being wise, Rossi said. “Bocce balls” is about being courageous and “goodfella” is about doing charity work.

“You want to have something catchy. You want to have something edgy. But there’s certainly no disrespect,” Rossi said. “I had my parents look at it. I had my family look at it. I had friends look at it. And they just love it.”

“I’m a proud Italo-Canadian, so I’m not going to poke fun at my own heritage,” he said. “This is to satirize the stereotype and to turn it around, and to be a little cheeky and to redefine what those terms are in a positive way.”

Not everyone gets the joke. Richard Marazzi, who was born in Canada but holds an Italian passport, said he emailed Rossi’s campaign office Monday to complain after seeing the ads.

“It’s not that I’m against (Rossi) … but from an Italian standpoint, I just think (the ads) perpetuate a negative stereotype,” said Marazzi. He had planned to vote for Rossi but said he will now reconsider.

“My father came here from Italy and worked a job that nobody else would take to earn an honest living for his family,” he said. “(Rossi’s) whole idea is insulting to his efforts.” If Rossi was trying to be funny, he failed, Marazzi said.

Asked his reaction, fellow candidate Joe Pantalone said the ads “would probably be more appropriate for New Jersey, rather than Toronto.”

“It works on a stereotype,” said Pantalone, who was born in Sicily. “I think Toronto is a very sophisticated city where people want to talk about the issues.”

Rossi said feedback about the ads has been mostly positive. “There’s no question there’s an occasional person who’s not liking it but there’s also a concerted effort by my opposing candidates, who do have Italo-Canadian supporters . . . to try to make it an issue. But the vast majority see it for what it is, which is to be fun and to be bold.”

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Corrado Paina, executive director of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario, said he finds the use of Italian stereotypes tiresome, but wasn’t offended by Rossi’s campaign.

“I think the Italian community has to get over that kind of language,” said Paina. “But I don’t get offended . . . I just don’t care.”