International Brand Activism: Translating Sexual‑Health Communication Across Institutional Contexts
(A2026-134284)

AUTHORS

Francesca Avallone, University of Sannio

ABSTRACT

Global brands increasingly take public stances on contested sociopolitical issues, yet we know little about activism adaptation across institutional contexts. This paper conceptualises International Brand Activism (IBA) as the balancing of global consistency and local legitimacy and examines it through a comparative case of Durex’s sexual-health communication in the United Kingdom, Italy, Colombia, India and a Gulf cluster. Using a multi-channel digital corpus (websites, social media posts and comments, news articles) and comparative critical discourse analysis, we trace how a single sex-positive agenda is translated into different mixes of speaking, deflecting and silence as economic, cultural and regulatory distance increases. We show that IBA is a repertoire of discursive configurations and local-action strategies that recompose authenticity and legitimacy for activist brands.