From the Champions League to The Simpsons, collectible Panini stickers have been hoarded and swapped by youngsters around the world for decades, and are now celebrating their 50th anniversary with an exhibition in Rome.
The 1961 brainchild of the Panini brothers who ran a small kiosk in Modena in northern Italy, the first albums of soccer players were an immediate hit and the family branched out into cartoons and toys.
“The Panini brothers did not invent stickers, but had the brilliant idea of selling them in pouches to introduce the element of surprise,” said Antonio Allegra, head of the Panini group in Italy, as he unveiled the exhibition.
“You open the pouch, discover the missing sticker and it gives you a feeling like no other!” he said.
Once the Panini franchise had conquered Italy, it spread abroad from the 1970s onwards and today the stickers are distributed in over 100 countries – a success which earned the group €800 million revenue in 2010.
“There have been several attempts to copy our products around the world, but Panini has managed to remain leader in the field thanks to the wealth of choice on offer and the company’s licences,” Mr Allegra said.
To keep the competition at bay, the group came up with new ideas, from stickers with sequins, to personalised My Panini albums with photos of friends. The Panini family sold the business in 1988, but the company kept its headquarters in Italy and remained faithful to the original concept.
“The printing and packaging methods have changed, as have the distribution methods. But what has not changed is young people’s passion for football!” said Antonio Panini, a descendant whose family still owns the historic kiosk in Modena.
“Looking back at the stickers over the years, you can tell how much time has passed and fashions have changed by just looking at the footballers, their outfits, their haircuts,” he said.
And it is true that the moustaches and improbable hairstyles of the players of yesteryear, compared to the pose of a carefully-preened David Beckham or a stylised Djibril Cisse, cause no little mirth among exhibition visitors. But only those who have the old Italian lira currency on them may have any luck with a vintage automatic Panini vending machine on show. The longing for that sticker that never materialises, the one some child at school swaps with your enemy, and that hauntingly empty space in the album are frustrations that Panini lovers will know well, down the generations. But Antonio Panini says they are now a thing of the past: “with automatic production methods, the same number of every sticker is printed and the problem doesn’t exist anymore.”
Good news for those still hoping to complete their Premier League, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Action Man or Barbie collections – those who spend their school break times bartering with fellow fanatics: “Got, got... need!”
Panini 1961-2001: An Italian History, runs until October 23 at the Palazzo Incontro in Rome.