The medium is the marketplace: Fictional-brand fandom and reverse product placement

Solomons, Gabriel

Abstract

While product displacement, shop-dropping and murketing are all methods used to skewer or criticize our heavily branded world, fictional branding is often used in an effort to re-inforce the connection between the fan and the movie world created, demonstrating that even fake brands have real business potential once they become household names. This defictionalisation of imagined objects or hypothetical brands from the films in which they appear into the ‘real world’ reveal new meanings of ownership, identification and value – especially when we consider them in the context of an ever more consumer savvy landscape. What can we learn from the persuasive power of imaginary brands in a world where the boundaries between ‘fake’ and ‘real’ are becoming ever more blurred?

Citation

Solomons, G. (2017, November). The medium is the marketplace: Fictional-brand fandom and reverse product placement. Presented at 3rd International Conference on Semiotics and Visual Communication: Branded. The Semiotics of Branding in Culture and Context, Cyprus University of Technology, Lemesos, Cyprus

• Presentation Conference Type: Keynote
• Conference Name: 3rd International Conference on Semiotics and Visual Communication: Branded. The Semiotics of Branding in Culture and Context
• Conference Location: Cyprus University of Technology, Lemesos, Cyprus
• Start Date: Nov 3, 2017
• End Date: Nov 5, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Nov 4, 2017
• Publication Date: Nov 4, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 9, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: branding, semiotics, film, object studies, reverse product placement, fictional brand fandom, murketing, shop-dropping
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/878751
• Publisher URL: https://www.icsvc-conference.com
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : 3rd International Conference on Semiotics and Visual Communication: Branded. The Semiotics of Branding in Culture and Context; Corporate Creators : Cyprus Semiotics Association, Semiotics and Visual Communication Lab