The Use of Food in Cinema as a Soft Power Instrument

Abstract

Regarding reaching large audiences, cinema is one of the oldest known advertising tools and is often used by countries as a soft power tool. Although food's social and cultural reflections in the cinema are not a new development, it has increased in recent years. It is thought that cinema increases intercultural interaction and helps to reshape borders in the globalizing world. Sensing social concepts such as food and marginalization, the relationship between food and gender, food, and social discrimination related to daily life are conveyed through cinema. One of the biggest motivations for writing the chapter is to examine the soft power effect of culinary culture in the cinematic narrative. In this study, the relationship between soft power and cinema was examined. At the same time, the use of food as a soft power element in cinematic narrative is examined. In this context, the importance of food as a soft power source in cinema in terms of nation branding and the place of Turkish culinary culture in cinema has been discussed.