Page 197 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

1 | Hypercommerc al sm

of entertainment supertexts, multimedia forms that can be expanded and resold
almost ad infinitum.

rETaiL ouTLETs anD mEDia BranDs
Batman—the movie, then the industry—inspired the chain of Warner Bros.
retail stores, one of the most significant trends in all of this. These new entertain-
ment/commodity facilities, or retail stores feature branded products. Before the
deregulation of the 1980s, merchandise tied to TV shows was not allowed be-
cause the program would have been, in essence, an extended commercial. Since
then (as in the 1950s), the shows that feature the products that children desire so
fervently after seeing them on TV, advertise the product for the length of the
program. Tying products to TV programs, films, networks, and the cable ser-
vices on which they appear give media firms distinct brand identities that create
new marketing horizons for massive amounts of commodities. Cable channels
and broadcast networks alike now strive to be regarded as brands, especially de-
sirable to specific demographic groups targeted by advertisers, especially chil-
dren who watch Disney and Nickelodeon. Disney now has over 600 retail stores
selling branded products, and Time Warner is in hot pursuit with a couple hun-
dred stores. Viacom has also entered the branded retail-marketing venture. It is
this latest aspect of the merger/synergy structure that reduces the cultural dif-
ferences between movies and advertisements, programming and promotion,
entertainment and shopping.
As detailed previously, these economic practices also affect content, which
is designed to conform to the atmosphere of what some describe as commer-
cialtainment. Disney’s animated film Hercules illustrates the close connections
between corporate synergy and sympathetic media content. In the Disney story,
when Hercules becomes a hero he also becomes an action figure. The cultural
icons of his success are prestigious tie-in products, from Air-Hercules sandals to
soft drinks, all of which are sold, of course, in their own branded, retail outlet
depicted in the film. At the time of the movie’s release, Disney made up the en-
trance to its store to look like the store in the film, and the tie-in theme park is
also depicted in the text of the movie. The movie’s celebration of marketing syn-
ergy helps create a cultural attitude in its favor, which helps erase the distinction
between cultural narratives, heroes, marketing, and merchandise.
While some critics see supra-narratives that extend and augment across
media outlets and formats as constituting a creative realm of media and audi-
ence production, other analysts argue that they are indicative of a monolithic
media world that crowds out smaller, creative alternatives. Those concerned
with the excesses of commercialism argue that such narratives are only suc-
cessful when they conform to a certain set of requirements, designed to target
the highest paying markets. The now standard and highly formulaic action ad-
venture narratives must be hyped with all the advertising that studio money
can buy. Because advertising is needed to create the buzz (especially to teen
audiences who see movies more than once and buy the tie-in merchandise),
spot advertising is now a huge expense for media firms themselves. Such fran-
chises are expensive to make and expensive to advertise, and this is a major