Advertainment. La comunicazione pubblicitaria alle soglie del Duemila

In 1998 there was a marked increase in the supply of fiction produced in Italy both by the public sector and by private networks; figures for 1996-97 season amount, as a matter-of fact, to about 284 hours of fiction, that is about twice as many hours as in the previous two-year period. This turning-point affected not only Tv showing, but also business communication which, in 1998, embarked on what seems to be a new form of advertising: advertainment, that is selling a product or a service «by telling a story in instalments». The substantial increase over the past few years of commercials following such a logic seems to be related to two factors: on the one hand advertising exploits the formats typical of fiction as they meet the viewing public’s taste - serial broadcasting, as a matter of fact, makes it possible to establish clear unambiguous forms of communication with the public. On the other hand, the creation of serialized advertising stories is a natural development and can, therefore, be interpreted as indicative of the evolution and hyper-segmentation of the italian market.