Brands, products and themes in television fiction: an essay on placement as a production strategy

The present paper tries to discuss, in a preliminary and essayistic way, the use of the placement of brands, products and themes in television fiction as a commercial strategy, but also as a social strategy. In a time of overabundance of content and proliferation of distribution platforms and access devisces, the use of creative alternatives to produce and finance content, seeks to ensure the loyalty of viewers and, consequently, to trigger the purchase, in a constant dialogical process between advertisers/brands, channels/contents and receivers/consumers. Thus, in a reflexive attitude, product placement is explored as a concept, taking into account its potentialities and impacts, making up the counterpoint and analogy with the placement of themes (social merchandising), as a disciplinary field within media studies, but still with little analytical and academic expression in Portugal.