“Localwashing” as a New Framework for Food & Drink Advertising Discourse: An Analysis of French and Italian Beer Brands

The success of craft beer is often cited as a prime example of neolocalism, the late-modern search for local traditions and “sense of place”. However, not all territorial claims in brewing advertising discourse correspond to actual local embeddedness. This article introduces the neologism “localwashing” to address this discrepancy, defining it as the discursive and semiotic overemphasis of territorial belonging without material correspondence. It aims to develop a model for distinguishing documented local anchoring from staged localness. The corpus comprises 57 craft breweries and 5 industrial breweries from France and Italy, selected for their explicit use of territorial branding. Through a qualitative discourse analysis of websites, labels and digital content, the study proposes an exploratory model based on six analytical categories applied at the local, regional and national levels. The analysis reveals a range of discursive strategies from substantive anchoring (Cluster 1) to weak (Cluster 2) and strong localwashing (Cluster 3). Drawing on the distinction between “hot”, “cool” and “staged authenticity”, this framework differentiates between actual local embeddedness and merely iconic evocations of place. Furthermore, it offers a tool that can potentially be adapted to other gastronomic sectors and contributes to a critical understanding of localness as a social, discursive, and commercial construct.