Constructing and disputing brand national identity in marketing discourse

Country-of-origin appeals create national identities for brands, thereby exploiting positive country-specific expertise. As a result of such marketing discourses, which utilize essen-tialized territory-language linkages, such practices become enregistered for consumers, and these linguistic fetishes are available as semiotic resources for the national identity branding of products. Contemporary consumers can play a role in creating, maintaining, and possibly challenging the national identity branding of products. This article reports on a recent campaign by brewer Stella Artois that used French to emphasize the brand’s Belgian origins and on consumers’ disputing this usage in a discussion of the campaign on YouTube. The case illustrates the stability of the semiotic resources of national identity branding and who is and is not allowed to use them and for which purposes. This becomes apparent when transgressing these unwritten rules is sanctioned by the audience for the ad, who seek restoration of predictability and stability in relation to borders and branding.