Purpose This paper aims to examine the paradoxes of buy local campaigns. These are popular strategies for marketing products in domestic markets aimed at supporting the local economy. Their scope can be national, regional, community or sectoral (such as agriculture, tourism, clothing or textiles). Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the paradoxes associated with these campaigns, using two cases and a mixed methods study of buy local campaigns in the Ghanaian and South African textiles and clothing industries. Findings The study found that both economic and cultural streams of the two campaigns have different outcomes and that the dominance of one aspect does not directly influence the other. Practical implications The use of buy local campaigns by countries as an intervention for reclaiming domestic market spaces can produce contradictory outcomes concurrently in the same campaign. Originality/value The author concludes with a brief discussion, which spells out the anatomy of buy local campaigns and the usefulness of the different aspects of these campaigns.

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