'90s Flashback: The Time Fabio Almost Died Shooting An I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Commercial

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When you hear the name "Fabio," you might think of long, flowing hair, a thick Italian accent, and of course, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Or, at least, all of that might come to mind if you were coming of age in the 1990s when Italian model and romance novel cover star Fabio Lanzoni gained national attention as the spokesperson for the imitation butter brand. 

Through a series of tongue-in-cheek commercials, Lanzoni played up his attractive image to help sell the product through desirable characters such as Tarzan and a perfectly chiseled statue, much to the delight of his female co-stars, who conveniently always had a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! nearby. However, as glamorous as this career might sound, it wasn't all easy. As Lanzoni is about to relaunch his partnership with the brand, we had the opportunity to speak with him exclusively about what really went on behind the scenes of those commercials and how it was sometimes not as simple as it looked.

In this 1999 commercial, a woman is in a boat, alone, on a river in the jungle. A voiceover tells us "she was coming home to the jungle," as a man (Fabio Lanzoni) dressed as Tarzan runs through the woods. He grabs a piece of bread with butter spread and says the iconic tagline, "I can't believe it's not butter!" Sexy, silly, and simple, in under 20 seconds. Except there's more to the story than you'd expect.

Lanzoni says that the commercial team initially got stuck in the jungle for three or four days due to a hurricane, and after they cleaned up the wreckage, they discovered a large coral snake in the area. Fabio was supposed to run barefoot through the jungle — and when he noticed an ambulance on standby, he says he suggested, "What about me running with a pair of [New Balances] instead?" 

He recalls that he was told, "In case you get bitten, you know, there is no doctors here. There is only a witch doctor in town." Luckily, he did not suffer a snake attack; however, a stunt person was injured. Fabio was forbidden from doing stunts, so a stuntman filled in for him, swinging on a vine — who ultimately, as he says, "end up hitting big time, a tree, and fell down on the ground."

In another '90s commercial for the brand, a woman chisels an attractive man out of marble. He comes to life (as Fabio Lanzoni) and eats bread and butter, saying — you guessed it — "I can't believe it's not butter!" While this ad seems much simpler than the jungle spot, it was equally as uncomfortable for the performer.

Lanzoni recalls that getting into the statue costume was tough, saying that he was in the makeup for hours. He also talked about how cold it was in Prague during the shoot, and how much worse it was than when he was living in New York. He would see unhoused people on the streets of New York in winter and feel bad for them since they must have been so cold. But he didn't truly appreciate how bad things can get with the weather until he traveled to Prague. "Make even like the worst day in New York the warmest day," he says.

You'd think with all of the fame and money Fabio Lanzoni acquired from his I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! campaign that his family would be proud of him. (It doesn't hurt that the taste is pretty good, too.) However, much like many parents who have different dreams for their children, he says his conservative father, Sauro Lanzoni, wanted his son to be a mechanical engineer and didn't understand Fabio's desire to be an actor and a model. Fabio says "When I decided to go on career modeling, he was really mad at me. And for the longest time, he didn't even talk to me for like two or three years."

But luckily, Sauro came around — it just took one more marker of success from his son. When Fabio appeared on the cover of People, Sauro saw the impact of his son's career. "That was turning point," Fabio says. "My father, it was like I'm proud of you, and you were right, and I was wrong, and ... I'm like, 'Dad, can you repeat that?' You never ever admit in your life you were wrong once, so you know, it's nice to hear again."

Because nostalgia is firmly in vogue again, Fabio Lanzoni is coming back once more in 2026 to represent I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! and say his iconic line — hopefully this time, with a little less danger and emotional turmoil. He already appeared in a sponsored episode on Gordon Ramsay's competition show "Idiot Sandwich" (an insult you can find all over his restaurants) in 2026, where Fabio says he and Ramsay bonded over their love of fast cars, and as Lanzoni says, "It was a lot of fun working with them." (Ramsay is a favorite interview subject at Tasting Table, as well.) Additionally, Fabio has written the foreword for a new self-help book entitled "Lifting the Lid: The T.U.B.Z Method for Unlocking Your Full Potential."

It seems as though Lanzoni is very comfortable with his image and his legacy as an I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spokesperson, poking a bit of fun at himself. When we asked why he continues to come back, he told us, "I think in life it's very important to have a great sense of humor ... We need humor. ... We need ... big time some humor in our lives."