Author Description

Television Brandcasting examines U. S. television's utility as a medium for branded storytelling. It investigates the current and historical role that television content, promotion, and hybrids of the two have played in disseminating brand messaging and influencing consumer decision-making. Juxtaposing the current period of transition with that of the 1950s-1960s, this book outlines how in each era new technologies unsettled entrenched business models, an emergent viewing platform threatened to undermine an established one, and content providers worried over the behavior of once-dependable audiences. The anxieties led to storytelling, promotion, and advertising experiments, including the Disneyland series, embedded rock music videos in Ozzie & Harriet, credit sequence brand integration, Modern Family's parent company promotion episodes, second screen initiatives, and social TV experiments. Offering contemporary and classic examples from the American Broadcasting Company, Disney Channel, ABC Family, and Showtime, individual chapters focus on brandcasting at the level of the television series, network schedule, the Blu-ray/ DVD/digital combo pack, the promotional short, the cause marketing campaign, and across social media space. In this follow-up to her successful previous book, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, Gillan's new book provides vital insights into television's role in the expansion of a brand-centric U.S. culture.