Italian tradition and Swiss terroir. Gastronomic Italianity in the advertising communication of certain commercial activities established in French-speaking Switzerland between remembering and stereotypy

Abstract

Located in the heart of Europe, Switzerland has always attracted many foreigners. Among these immigrants, Italian people form the largest group of permanent foreign population in the Swiss Confederation. This Italian community is today well integrated into Swiss society and into Swiss labour market, so much so that Italianness is considered a heritage to protect, and that a certain Italianization of Swiss cuisine is underway.

Our analysis will consider the advertising communication strategies implemented by certain companies specialized in the creation and sale of traditional Italian dairy products and established in French-speaking Switzerland. These are commercial activities which have in common the Italian origins of their founders and the desire to carry our gastronomic tradition beyond national borders. We will examine a corpus made up of different types of advertising messages (uni- or multimodal) which show the desire to combine Italian tradition with the values ​​of the Swiss community.

This analysis will show that advertising language sometimes draws from a reservoir of knowledge already acquired and shared, with the purpose of convincing, persuading and encouraging consumers.