Who Came First? The Egg or the Carton? An Analysis of Organic Packaging for Italian Retail Chain Esselunga

Abstract

In light of the growing organic products and the rise of the hybrid citizen-consumer, defined by Johnston (2008) “as a concept (that) implies a social practice – “voting with your dollar” – that can satisfy competing ideologies of consumerism (an idea rooted in individual self-interest) and citizenship (an ideal rooted in collective responsibility to a social and ecological commons)” (p. 229), calls for more studies into green marketing on the connection between consumers agency and organic packages of food products is needed. This chapter examines organic advertising of the organic egg carton by Esselunga, one of the largest Italian chain supermarkets. Visually the package of the eggs reflects nostalgia for family owned farms, while also providing the consumer with technical legal jargon associated to organic farming and marketing regulations in Italy in alignment also with European Union regulations. These images and text serve to appease both the self and societal interest of the buyer. Through a qualitative content analysis of the package, this chapter argued that these forms of textual and visual communication are consistent with ‘compliance marketing’ and ‘green selling’ (King 1984; Peattie and Crane 2005), rather than serving to empower the buyer through valuable information. The paper discussed the implications of the findings for the citizen-consumer.