“THE ITALIAN GENIO”: ITALIAN IN GLOBAL FOOD MARKETING

Abstract

The contribution aims to analyse the Italianisms used by the major Italian food brands in
their international commercial communication. In order to enhance the value of their
products, the major food brands present the mselves on the international markets by
constructing communication campaigns often centred on the reference (more or less
explicit) to Italianism. Italianness (and the so called ‘Italian way of life’), traditionally very
strongly linked to food, in the sen se of good food and eating well, is recalled not only
through landscapes, images, music that evoke Italy, but also through the use of Italian
words and phrases (in our case, of course, these are terms mostly related to gastronomy).
Italianisms thus take on a decisive role in conveying the image of Italy to the world, but
often providing an image of it that is different from the real one, idealised, stereotyped,
and, in some cases, slipping into dream and myth. One thinks, for example, of the cases in
which the Italian food product is proposed through the citation (also linguistic) of all those
elements that symbolically recall the so called Italian ‘way of life’: good eating, the
pleasure of conviviality and being together (especially at the table), friendli ness, but also
good music, the style and elegance of Italians. In this perspective, we will dwell more
specifically on the linguistic and communicative dynamics used in the global market to
build this image of an Italy that is more fantastic than real (‘il bel paese’, not by chance,
the label of a highly successful cheese) that can appeal to consumers. In order to better
understand this phenomenon, some examples of the commercial communication of some
important companies promoting their products abroad, fro m Barilla to Ferrero, are
considered.