The media is an important part of our everyday life and plays a big role in creating opinions through various representations and the use of stereotypes and symbols. In this assignment, I discuss the relationship between nations, national symbols and national dishes and their use in everyday life. I also highlight the banal ways in which national ideas or identities are reproduced with the help of symbols, traditions and national dishes. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the use of symbols of Slovenianness, how they contribute to the (banal) reproduction of national identity and national ideas, to find out which are the most frequently used symbols to denote Slovenianness. For research I used the approach of multimodal analysis, in which I included four campaigns from different merchants and helped myself with the following research questions: Which symbols are most often used to denote Slovenianness? How are the practices of banal nationalism manifested in the marketing campaigns for the promotion of food products of four major retailers - Tuš, Spar, Mercator and Lidl? What are the most frequently used symbols of Slovenianness in these four campaigns? In the analysis, I included official websites and advertisements. The campaigns changed over time, but the most familiar symbols of Slovenianness and their use in these campaigns have nevertheless remained the same for years and thus stereotypically represent Slovenia and the Slovenian land in the media. In the campaigns, symbols of nature, rugged Slovenian landscapes with hayracks in the background, linden leaves and some of the best-known traditional Slovenian dishes were most often used.
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