Communicating persuasive messages through slow food festivals

As an active social and political philosophy, slow food aims to change the world, encouraging the public to opt for healthier food and reinvigorate traditional recipes and practices. Persuading people of this message is achieved through a range of methods, including media (particularly television, magazines and the Internet), restaurants, food retailers and food-themed festivals. In this article, we are examining how the latter are used to promote the persuasive messages of slow food. We use a comparative case study approach based on five international examples of festivals branded as ‘slow’ or that incorporate slow food elements into their theme or event concept. Two of the festivals are in Italy, where the slow food movement began and remains popular. The other three are from Australia and New Zealand, the countries which have embraced slow food, although lacking the entrenched cultural heritage of distinct regional cuisines. The event web sites present detailed and persuasive messages about what slow food is, how it is aiming to change patterns of behaviour and the rejection of modern fast-food cultures. Communication via these web sites is both multi-storeyed and multi-storied. There are complex uses of imagery and metaphor, the usage of well-known media food personalities as champions, and the strong marketing of slow food as authentic, artisanal and high-status.