Abstract:

This study investigated how sustainable foods are marketed on Instagram by conducting a content analysis focusing on six factors: 1) category-level broad benefits and attributes, 2) concrete benefits and attributes, 3) social media marketing strategies, 4) earth imagery, 5) frame type, and 6) engagement. A total of 181 posts from five major organic food brands were analyzed. The findings reveal that eco-friendly, biodiversity, and environment/climate themes are most frequently emphasized in sustainable food marketing. Notably, the term “organic” appeared in over 75% of posts, leading to the introduction of the concept “sustainable food washing” a term describing how the excessive use of certain buzzwords and topics in posts can result in misleading practices similar to greenwashing. These results broaden the scope of sustainable food marketing research and significantly enhance existing knowledge in the field.