Many famous brands have benefited from positive exposure in movies, but Beretta has thrived in spite of a cruel rejection. Early in the first James Bond film Dr No, our hero is ordered to stop using a Beretta pistol because it belongs “in a lady’s handbag”. This would not have pleased Bartolomeo Beretta, the Lombardy gunsmith who began trading in 1526. Almost five hundred years later Beretta remains a family business. Fifteen generations of specialists have designed guns for combat, hunting and sport, and now their operation is global with sites in eleven countries. Today, the gun that wasn’t good enough for James Bond is considered indispensable by the armed forces and police of Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, Canada and the United States.
27 May /13
