Submarine Rises Through Milan's Pavement In Ridiculous Publicity Stunt

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.

A photograph of the bizarre scene made the front page of Reddit's WTF subreddit, as confused Milanese began surveying the scene:

Per scoprire tutto sul sottomarino in centro a Milano, vai su http://t.co/CNzmdAegqf #L1F3 @EA_Italia @Genertel pic.twitter.com/zxcxVWWqiV

- Jolanda Restano (@JolandaRestano) October 1, 2013

Un sottomarino a pochi passi da piazza Duomo a #Milano, ma è solo una trovata pubblicitaria http://t.co/XpdenbrlY3 pic.twitter.com/KMaHOzULhZ

- Tgcom24 (@MediasetTgcom24) October 1, 2013

A #milano emerge un sottomarino @turismomilano @ComuneMI #milanosorprende pic.twitter.com/E1zhrlI53E

- Giacomo Biraghi (@secolourbano) October 1, 2013

This sounds ridiculous, of course, and if you can read Italian, you've already sussed that something isn't quite right about this.

Europ Assistance IT, an insurance group based in Italy, had come to the street early in the morning to construct the fake submarine as part the marketing for their "Protect Your Life" campaign - which has its own website here.

The company even went so far as to hire some fake submariners who give interviews:

See more photos of the sunte over at the La Repubblica website.