Because the legendary Sip commercial with Massimo Lopez is back on TV

There are those who have checked the calendar to make sure they haven’t magically returned to 1993 and who, younger, thought of a system glitch. Instead it was all true. On the evening of Sunday 22 February, i Italian viewers they found themselves in front of a Vintage Massimo Lopeza dusty desert and that firing squad that stood still for thirty years waiting for the last phone call to end.

Not a remake, not an imitation with artificial intelligence, but the complete re-proposal of original SIP commercial (Italian Society for the Operation of Telecommunications). A archaeological find of communication which pierced the screen with explosive force, turning the spotlight back on an era in which the phone was not an extension of the handbut a precious thread that connected the country. Why broadcast an advertisement from three decades ago today? Although from TIM (universal heir to the SIP brand) no official confirmation has yet arrived, all the clues point towards Liguria.

Tomorrow, February 24th, the Sanremo Festival 2026. TIMas Main Partner of the event, seems intent on playing the card of collective memory. The most accredited hypothesis is that the return of Massimo Lopez let it be just the teaser of a broader story. A celebration of history of Italian telecommunications which will accompany the Festival evenings, combining the charm of vintage to the challenges of 5G.

The SIP commercial: an advertising masterpiece

The commercial is not just a childhood memorybut a small one masterpiece of advertising storytelling. Behind the camera was the late Alexander of Alatricapable of transforming an idea of ​​the agency Armando Testa in a national catchphrase. The paradox of the death row inmate who extends time by asking to telephone has become apop iconan example of how advertising, at the time, didn’t just sell fares, but built imaginary. At the time the SIP was about to become Telecom Italia (1994), and that campaign was the swan song of a brand he had Italy is literate in using the internet. The operation nostalgia of these hours rests on solid roots. There SIP she wasn’t alone telephone booths and tokens; it was the driving force ofinnovationcapable of testing in Turin, already in 1977the world’s first connection in optical fiber.

TIM’s historical record and the future

Today, propose that again logo and that acronym means to claim a historical record. In a market of telephony increasingly fragmented and fast, TIM chooses to stop timejust like Lopez in front of the rifles, to remind everyone where we come from. It remains to be seen whether in the next few hours we will see other “ghosts” of the advertising past or if Massimo Lopez will physically go on stageAriston to close that endless phone call. One thing is for sure, attention was captured and on web hypotheses are pouring in. And in 2026just like thirty years ago, one good idea (and a phone call) still can extend the life of a brand.