Foreign languages can be used in marketing communication to evoke specific associations in the consumers’ minds and enhance brand perception. This paper explores how a company’s sector, target audience and communication channel can influence the use of Italian in the communication strategy of Made in Italy brands aimed at English and French speaking audiences. The investigation takes the form of a case study on a selection of eight brands, adopting a qualitative and descriptive approach. Results suggest that sectors can influence the use of Italian together with other dimensions, such as targeting and positioning. No major differences based on target audiences emerged, which is likely to be linked to the rather homogeneous image of Italian products existing in the selected publics. Finally, social media platforms appear to allow for greater linguistic creativity, which may be used as an attention-getting device. This study therefore opens up new possibilities for further research on foreign language display adopting a linguistic perspective and using existing marketing material as the object of analysis.