Professor Angela Smith has co-written an article with Helen Andersson (Örebro University, Sweden) on the topic of butter packaging. Researchers have shown that it is common to use nationalist appeals when marketing food products. Research has also shown that geographical places play an important role in creating feelings of national identity and national belonging. To a much lesser extent, research has shown how these “places” are represented and reproduced in the packaging of food products in specific national environments and to an even lesser extent, compared these representations and reproductions. In their article, Angela Smith and Helen Andersson use multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine how butter packaging in Sweden and the UK represents nature in ways that create associations that are linked to the national identity that exists in each country. They argue that commercial interests, through their choice of packaging design, not only exploit cultural and political ideas and values but also reinforce them by connecting to prevailing national sentiments. In times of political and social change, this can be used to strengthen national affiliation and thus ally with political interests.
Andersson, H. and Smith, A. 2021. Flags and fields: a comparative analysis of national identity in butter packaging in Sweden and the UK. Social Semiotics.
