Cinzano of the vermouth market in Europe was measured in the low single digits, sales that placed it a distant second to Martini. As a result of a 1997 merger, Grand Metropolitan became Diageo; two years later, Diageo sold Cinzano to the privately held Gruppo Campari. The Cinzano bicycling team had a central role in the film "Breaking Away". Cinzano was well known in Britain for its humorous television advertisements featuring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins. One of these featured the pair on a plane journey, with Rossiter accidentally hitting the "recline" switch on Collins chair, causing her to spill a
Leonard Rossiter by film director Alan Parker and, at Rossiter's suggestion, used an old music hall joke where he spills a drink over his wife (played by Joan Collins). In the Channel 4 programme "The 100 Greatest TV Ads" (2000) Terry Lovelock, the director of two of the commercials, said that Rossiter used to refer jokingly to Collins as "The Prop". In the animated adaptation of "The Perishers" (1978) Rossiter provided the voice for Boot the dog. He reprised Rigsby for a film version of "Rising Damp" in 1980, thus achieving the distinction of playing the same role on stage, television and