Fiction as advertising: a semiotic-narrative analysis of Corporate Advertainment

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study from a semio-narrative perspective the advertising phenomenon know as “advertainment”, which may be understood as a type of branded content in entertainment format. For this purpose, we use the Narrative Program developed by Greimas as analytical model, as well as the narratological concept of “actant”. Advertainment is a marketing device of great interest from a semiotic point of view, since it is based on the integration of intangible brand values in entertainment products and to some extent, goes beyond advertising. This paper seeks to discover which actantial role is adopted by products and brand values within corporate narratives, as well as the predominant narrative developments that take place in the films. Since audiovisual fiction is one of the most relevant advertainment formats, theoretical concepts are applied to a sample of 72 corporate fiction films that represent top brands. Results indicate that the narrative pattern or corporate advertainment fims seems to be settled mainly on the action and comedy genres. In addition, this pattern is semiotically articulated on an actancial model where products and brand values play the role of “assistant”. The mentioned role enables the characters of stories overcome the challenges presented to them before achieving the desired object. In any case, corporate fictions are also obliged to rely on extra-advertising content in order to provide with interest the narrated stories. What is more, data also indicate that product placement and brand placement are a still present in the film narratives of advertainment.