Selling organic candy: multimodal critical discourse analysis of commercial websites
Purpose – This paper examines how organic candies are marketed as healthy and ethical choices on commercial websites through the use of visual, rhetorical and promotional strategies. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses social semiotics and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to identify...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) |
| Repositorio: | e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/61589 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10017/61589 https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-09-2020-0800 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Food marketing Ethical branding Multimodal studies Critical Discourse Analysis Organic candy Filología Philology |
| Sumario: | Purpose – This paper examines how organic candies are marketed as healthy and ethical choices on commercial websites through the use of visual, rhetorical and promotional strategies. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses social semiotics and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the narratives and discursive traits that organic candy manufacturers reproduce on their websites as part of their ethical branding policy. The dataset is formed by ten websites that commercialize organic confectionery. Findings – The findings indicate that sellers try to associate organic candy with healthiness, simple and traditional lifestyles and social awareness to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Often the ethical claims that organic candy websites reproduce are not justified. Originality – The investigation contributes to a growing body of research about Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis within food marketing studies. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper that analyzes organic candy branding from a multimodal perspective. Research and practical implications – Recognizing the strategies that organic candy sellers reproduce can help consumers make more informed choices. From the point of view of marketers, understanding the multimodal, rhetorical and discursive strategies that organic candy brands employ can be useful to devise their own marketing approaches. Limitations – A major limitation of this study is that the investigation does not evaluate the effectiveness of rhetorical and discursive strategies on real consumer decisions. Further research of an ethnographic or empirical nature would be required for this purpose. |
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