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Quick answer
Bialetti’s logo is the “little man with a moustache,” or omino coi baffi, an advertising character associated with the coffee maker. Bialetti credits Paul Campani and Max Massimino Garnier with its creation in 1953 and identifies Renato Bialetti as its inspiration. Other histories name Alfonso, so that likeness should be attributed rather than presented as unanimous fact.
The moustached character appears on the coffee maker as well as in Bialetti’s advertising.
Who drew him, and whose face is it?
Bialetti’s account names Campani and Garnier and describes the figure as inspired by Renato. The Provincia di Modena account of Paul Campani instead identifies a caricature of Alfonso. Treccani also gives the Alfonso version.
The sources agree more closely on Campani’s role than on the figure’s likeness. Bialetti’s Renato attribution should therefore be read as the manufacturer’s account, alongside the institutional accounts naming Alfonso.
The television character came later than the drawing
Rai dates the first Carosello programme to 3 February 1957. Bialetti dates its character’s appearances to 1958. A logo created in 1953 and a television debut in 1958 are therefore compatible, not competing dates for one event.
The unusual trick where his mouth should be
The Modena history project describes letters appearing in rapid succession in place of the character’s mouth. The words became part of the drawing’s movement rather than a separate caption below it.
A logo is not a reliable date stamp
Finding the little man on a vintage pot establishes that the object carries the character. It does not, by itself, tell you its manufacturing year. Logos can remain in use, move position and appear on different models; dating an individual object needs model-specific evidence.
The Renato article explains why a recognizable identity mattered commercially. The design history explains another kind of recognition: the familiar object as a museum design, whether or not the viewer knows the cartoon’s story.