“E la vita, la vita” by Cochi and Renato, written with Dario Fo and Enzo Jannacci, has been chosen for the new Nutella ad. Lo Stato Sociale, a band from Bologna, performs the song. This bursting-with-energy version represents Nutella's essence perfectly.

Nutella, invented by Pietro Ferrero and put on the market in 1964, is the Italian brand name for a gianduia cream containing cocoa and hazelnuts, and has become a true mass phenomenon. Nowadays, Nutella has become the best-selling spreadable cream in the world, with a production of 365,000 tons per year.

Its addictiveness lies in its ingredients. Apart from sugar and fats, Nutella is rich in chocolate. Chocolate contains addictive substances; one of these substances is tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating moods.

The word Nutella came about from the merging of the English word 'nut' from the typically Italian ingredient hazelnut in the gianduja, with the Italian positive-sounding and Latin suffix for sweet 'ella'.

Here are a few things you might not know about the gooey spread.

• NAPOLEON AND HITLER ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORLD'S NUTELLA ADDICTION.
• ITS PREDECESSOR WAS NAMED AFTER A CHARACTER FROM ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE.
• IT ORIGINALLY CAME IN THE FORM OF A LOAF.
• IT SPREADS FAR AND WIDE.

A sweet spread made from hazelnuts, sugar, vegetable oils, cocoa solids and skimmed milk, generically called chocolate spread.

Nutella is a sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread made by Ferrero, an Italian company that's the third-largest chocolate producer in the world. It was originally created in Italy during World War II when baker Pietro Ferrero added ground hazelnuts to a chocolate spread to make up for a shortage of cocoa in the country.

After World War II, cocoa was extremely scarce. Ferrero, originally from Piedmont in Italy, turned this tricky problem into a smart solution, creating a sweet paste made from hazelnuts, sugar and just a little of the rare cocoa. The ancestor of Nutella® was born.

It's a product, Canaparo said, "that made hazelnuts famous throughout the world." In the 1940s, Italian pastry maker Pietro Ferrero created Nutella, which is now so popular it sells in 160 countries, Fans gush about it. It's about the only thing on the menu in some cafés.