The representation of fiction in radio spot. Characters, context and other narrative elements

Abstract

Previous research has shown that radio advertising is essentially realistic and very informative about features, properties and benefits of the advertised product. But from a pretended objectivity and with a strong detailed list. In only 9% of cases, copywriters choose fiction as a narrative form to communicate the commercial offer to the listener. This is the starting point for this research, whose aims are to identify and quantify the presence of these elements in the radio spot. The results of content analysis of the sample concluded that in 64,7% of advertisements, the actor uses very familiar voices of fictional characters from literature, film or television that are easily recognizable by the target audience. Only in 8,9% of the advertisements the plot unfolds in imaginary places that do not exist in reality. In the two elements of radio language analyzed, the descriptive function is predominant: in 30,8% of radio spots, the music evokes objects or elements of nature while in 38,2% of cases, special sound effects describe a scene or reproduce an object.