Italians doing it on the web: translating and sellingItalianness

Abstract

This essay explores the implementation of a stereotypically Italian attribute, passion, in the promotion of Italian beverages via the Internet. Twenty websites promoting different types of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages were examined in order to see how the concept of passion was adopted and whether, and if so, how the concept of passion changes according to the size of the company and the type of beverage being promoted. Findings showed that the more alcoholic content the promoted beverage contains, the stronger and more transgressive references to passion became. Furthermore, larger companies tended to opt for a more humorous use of the stereotype when compared to smaller companies.