Recontextualizing Swedish nationalism for commercial purposes: a multimodal analysis of a milk marketing event

Abstract

In this paper, I carry out an analysis of an event in Sweden called 'the spring turnout'. It is a traditional event where cows are allowed out into the fields after the winter. I show how it has been colonized by Arla Foods, the diary company which controls part of the milk production in Sweden and in many other countries. Of interest in this analysis is how Arla infuses the event, and its own marketing, with discourses about nature that are specifically Swedish and can be traced to the nation building of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, used systematically as part of the social democratic project for equality and progress through a strong welfare system. The paper examines how Arla recontextualizes these discourses for commercial purposes. I show how such recontextualized discourses carry reassurances to Swedish people that this project is still intact despite huge social political changes in Swede over the past decades embracing neoliberalism, global capitalism and becoming one of the fastest deregulating countries in the world.

All that glistens is not (green) gold: historicising the contemporary chlorophyll fad through a multimodal analysis of Swedish marketing, 1950–1953

“…This idea fit with the then-popular Physical Culture Movement, which saw healthy bodies as an “obligation of citizenship” that was essential for a country’s economic success and social harmony (Zweiniger-Bargielowska, 2006, p. 596). It drew on a self-help ideology that advocated that one should take responsibility for their own health to limit the burden they might place upon society, which bears striking similarities to how neoliberalism works today in marketing (Andersson, 2019; Chen and Eriksson, 2021). This idea was also tied up with the concept of nature as a form of romantic nationalism .…”

“…Since the late nineteenth century, nature had been used by the cosmetics industry as a way of circumventing taboos around bodily functions and effluvia, but the discovery of chlorophyll offered a new way to make this link. Through the use of green typography and images of leaves, sanitary towel brands framed pads as being "intrinsically good" and making "life easier to humankind" (Andersson, 2019), but in a strange way, they also advocated correcting nature (i.e. menstruation) with nature.…”

Selling organic candy: multimodal critical discourse analysis of commercial websites

“…Following the model of Ledin and Machin (2018), recently updated (Ledin and Machin, 2020a), Chen and Eriksson (2019b) analysed how protein snacks are marketed as good food choices through their packaging and how these packages reproduce a discourse which defends the benefits of high protein intake, despite scientific evidence. Other recent multimodal studies have linked packages and advertising to discourses of authenticity (Barnes, 2017), nationalist values (Andersson, 2019(Andersson, , 2020Vezovnik and Kamin, 2016), social elitism and prestige (K€ onig and Lick, 2014;Mapes, 2020). These former investigations show that multimodal design is a highly effective branding strategy, which can create artificial associations between food products and different values and ideologies.…”

Connoting a neoliberal and entrepreneurial discourse of science through infographics and integrated design: the case of ‘functional’ healthy drinks

“…Ledin & Machin, 2020a). For instance, Andersson (2019) shows how Arla (a dairy company) use images of nature to signify ideas about a political past and to associate their products with progress and the building of the Swedish welfare society in the twentieth century. Ledin and Machin (2020a) demonstrate that by positioning itself as an underdog against dairy farming, Oatly (an oat drink company) exploits the discourse of political activism and makes the consumption of Oatly appear as a morally righteous choice.…”