Shifting advertising budgets brings with it a host of great opportunities and efficiencies, but also a host of complexities. There’s no doubt that targeting audiences today is a challenging undertaking for companies. Each generation has a unique set of behaviors and presents a unique set of challenges for those trying to reach them. Over the past decade and a half, brands have focused on Millennials as their spending power has grown. However, with Millennials now well into their teens, companies are shifting their attention to the next generation, Gen Z.
Added to this is another very important aspect, namely that in recent years the language of food has undergone a significant transformation, with the introduction of terms that go beyond the simple description of food to include sensory, social and cultural experiences. Words such as “foodie”, “brunch”, “apericena”, “snacking” and “flexitarian” have entered our daily lexicon, representing a relationship with food that is no longer limited to consumption, but embraces sharing and experimentation. This trend, driven by culinary innovations and the influence of social media, highlights how food has become a cultural phenomenon, redefining eating habits and language.
Terms like “brunch” (a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch) or “foodie” (a food enthusiast) not only describe food, but capture a lifestyle centered on socializing and sharing, promoting rapid and widespread adoption. At the same time, the phenomenon of neologisms is intertwined with youth slang, of which “ghostare” has been a school, where new generations continually create words to describe everyday experiences with speed and creativity. Terms like “bussin'” (to indicate extremely good food) or “snack” (which indicates an attractive person), show how language evolves to adapt to modern communication needs.
In this context, Morato, a Vicenza-based group that brings together many different companies of excellence in the bakery sector, has decided to go beyond the traditional concept of bread and snacks, drawing inspiration from the dynamic and creative language of the new generations.
Its new campaign “Bread outside the box” reflects this evolution, coining terms such as “aperitivizza”, “colaziona” and “spuntina”, which not only transform moments related to food into occasions of pleasure and creativity, but are close to the emerging slang of young people. Morato interprets the tendency of the new generations to reinvent everyday language, creating expressions that are part of a vocabulary closer to their lifestyle, characterized by flexibility, sharing and experimentation. These new terms not only describe the experience of consumption, but embody the philosophy of the brand: living every moment with taste, breaking the mold.
The phenomenon of food-related neologisms is not just a communication trend, but represents a profound change in the way we understand food. A change that responds to broader needs: the desire for novelty, the need to belong to a community and the desire to explore new gastronomic territories.
