WM Arte answers
Who was Armando Testa, and when did he found his agency?
Armando Testa (Turin 1917–1992) was Italy's best-known advertising creator. He founded his agency in 1956 (not 1946, a common error), won the competition for the Rome 1960 Olympics poster in 1958, and created the Punt e Mes sphere (1960), the Caballero and Carmencita cones for Lavazza's Paulista coffee, Pippo the hippo for Lines and Pirelli's tyre elephant.
He taught at the Politecnico di Torino from 1965 to 1971. Dates for some characters vary between sources (Caballero and Carmencita are given as 1960, 1964 or 1965; Pippo as 1964 or 1966–67). Museums now treat him as an artist, with retrospectives at the Castello di Rivoli (2001), Ca' Pesaro in Venice (2018) and the Musei Reali in Turin (2022). There is no public museum dedicated to him.