Nature, nationalism and neoliberalism on food packaging: The case of Sweden

Designing food packaging to present healthy and ethical diets to the New Chinese middle classes

“…This is a highly idealized scene, not simply in terms of how it is depicted, but in terms of how it communicates innocence and artlessness through the use of the drawings in the fashion of a children's storybook. The representation here appears to have a more local accent than the kinds of nature documented in Western food marketing such as in the US, UK, and Sweden (Andersson 2020). Here the cuteness of the characters and of the scene can be placed in the context of Kawaii culture often found in Chinese marketing (Chen and Machin 2014;Iwabuchi 2002), aligning with the representations of the happy pea characters seen on the front of the package (Figure 3).…”

“…Such representations are central to communicating ideas of authenticity, slowness, wholeness, simplicity (Shugart 2014). And such representations differ across cultures in relation to real or idealized notions of landscape (Andersson 2020). Running through our corpus of packages we find evidence of marketers speaking to, what Chinese scholars have described, as the middle class' new re-imagining of the natural and nature, shifting from earlier associations with the rural as backward, insular, and low status (Brunner 2019).…”

“…In MCDA scholars have presented inventories of choices (Van Leeuwen 2005; Kress 2010; Ledin and Machin 2020b). These have already been productively used to carry out critical analyses of packing (Wagner 2015;Chen and Eriksson 2019;Ledin and Machin 2020a;Machin and Cobley 2020;Andersson 2020). Importantly, such choices, which compose the material forms of packaging have significant discursive power as they form material objects, which become incorporated into everyday lives, found in our shops, kitchens, or sat on our office desk.…”

Flags and fields: a comparative analysis of national identity in butter packaging in Sweden and the UK

“…As marketing constructions, food packaging serves different discursive aims. Previous research has shown that food packaging design draws on and communicates wider discourses like sustainability (Ledin and Machin 2020), health (Chen and Eriksson 2019), nationalism (Roberts 2014), geographies of place (Kniazeva and Belk 2007;Kniazeva 2011), often in combination (Andersson 2020). It is a way for food producers to add value to both production and consumption, for example, Roberts (2014) has shown how packaging design in post-socialist Russia uses an imperial iconography associated with the Russian national identity to exploit consumer nostalgia for a mythical past.…”

“…It is a way for food producers to add value to both production and consumption, for example, Roberts (2014) has shown how packaging design in post-socialist Russia uses an imperial iconography associated with the Russian national identity to exploit consumer nostalgia for a mythical past. Andersson (2020) has shown how, in a Swedish context, nationally specific discourses on nature, closely connected to the Swedish welfare state, are used to communicate an environmentally friendly and healthy milk production and consumption. And finally, Kniazeva (2011) shows in her study of country of origin construction through food packages that these discourses often contain references to an inspiring national geography and/or a passionate people.…”