The Cranberries are mentioned in two new Italian magazines on newsstands this month, TV Sette and the oft-recurring Tutto. The first article, from Sette, takes a look at the ongoing Sprite promotion in Italy, which it praises as a “good idea.”
Here’s a translation:

Drink And Listen

 

Today it’s possible to download legally and practically free on your PC hundreds of songs, chart singles included. A TV spot [commercial] shows a guy in his car who asks another one:
– Have you got the latest Cranberries’ single?
And he, to answer him, points to a fridge full of Sprite, the drink in green bottle produced by Coca-Cola. On its wrapper there’s a special code which, [when] entered on the website www.thespriters.it lets, after listening to 30 second snipped files, anyone download one of the hundred songs of the Universal Catalogue. With some limitations: the file destructs itself at the end of 2002, and it isn’t copyable on a CD or even on another PC. We’re always in doubt when we’re publicizing about an advertisement, but it’s right, in the interest of those who read, publicizing a good idea. In this case also because it shows that not every major [company] has fear of the Internet. It is also a way to tell people how to act in regards to a product of talent which is a song, which can be enjoyed, like the sea, the beach, the sun, never possessed or stolen; after a work like writing, arranging and playing a song, a little expense (in this case the purchase of the drink) is justified. In the list we find Jovanotti, Nannini, Cranberries, Elton John etc.

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Caption: Above The Cranberries, included among the artists of the Universal catalogue downloadable from the Net after drinking a Sprite.

The second article, from Tutto, includes an extensive feature about The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The article includes a listing of bands who, like the Chili Peppers, didn’t find success right away, and The Cranberries are among them.
Here’s what it says:

CRANBERRIES
When the first album EEIDDISWCW? (1993) comes out, grunge and hip-hop is played. Result: in England the album sold only 12,000 copies, a misery. But it will be greatly re-discovered after its American success.

Thanks to Mattia of The Cranberries Videography for the scans and translations.

Source: Exclusive