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Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age pp 93–107Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

It’s a Branded New World: The Influence of State Policy upon Contemporary Italian Film Narrative

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Abstract

This chapter explores the influence of Italy’s recently introduced law on tax credit and product placement upon national film production. This law, passed in 2010, but enforced in 2011, encourages non-media companies to invest in Italian film production using the twofold incentives of tax credit and product placement. In Italy product placement, which consists of ‘incorporating brands in movies in return for money or for some promotional or other consideration’, has been legal since 2004.1 However, this chapter argues that the association of product placement with tax credit, which has no equivalent in other EU states to date, increases the financial involvement of private companies in film production in a way that enhances commercial influence upon the narrative and aesthetic features of the films. The chapter verifies this hypothesis through the analysis of a case study, the 2012 comedy The Commander and the Stork (Il Comandante e la Cicogna — hereafter The Commander), directed by Italian film-maker Silvio Soldini. In accordance with the new law, Lumière & Co., the Milan-based production company that made the movie, signed a partnership with Italian company ILLVA Saronno, allowing the famous Disaronno liqueur brand to star in one of the film’s scenes and the company to benefit from tax credit on its investment.2 This film is a particularly interesting case study not only because it is one of the very first (and, as will be discussed, still very few) implementations of the law, but also because of its production and artistic profile.

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Notes

  1. Pola B. Gupta and Stephen J. Gould, ‘Consumers’ Perception of the Ethics and Acceptability of Product Placement in Movies: Product Category and Individual Differences’, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 19, no. 1 (1997), 37.

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  4. Roberto Paolo Nelli, ed., Product Placement Made in Italy. Le marche nei film italiani dal 2004 al 2011 (Roma: Edizioni Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, 2013), 251.

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  5. For an historical overview of the product placement practice in Hollywood see Kerry Segrave, Product Placement in Hollywood Films: A History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004).

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  6. See, for instance, Israel D. Nebenzahl and Eugene Secunda, ‘Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Product Placement in Movies’, International Journal of Advertising 12, no. 1 (1993), 1–11;

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  31. For a comprehensive overview on this topic see Susan Newman-Baudais, Public Funding for Film and Audiovisual Works in Europe, Report by the European Audiovisual Observatory, 2011.

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  32. Jonathan Hardy, Cross-Media Promotion (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 240.

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  33. Because tax credits are offered to external companies on the basis of actual film production investment, the law furthermore ensures that the state complies with rules prohibiting it from offering fiscal advantages to the private sector in return for mere product placement payments to film producers. See Report by Ufficio Studi ANICA ed., I quaderni dell’ANICA — N.1 Product Placement (Roma, 2008), 71.

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  37. ‘Below-the-line’ marketing initiatives target consumers in a personal way (public relations, special events, direct marketing and so forth), whereas ‘above-the-line’ refers to mass communications, such as television advertisements. See Patrick De Pelsmacker, Maggie Geuens and Joeri Van den Bergh, Marketing Communications: A European Perspective Third edition (London: Pearson, 2007), 193.

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  38. Personal interview with Nadia Boriotti. Extra-textual communication activities enhance product placement’s effectiveness; see J.A. Karrh, K.B. McKee and C.J. Pardun, ‘Practitioners’ evolving views on Product Placement Effectiveness’, Journal of Advertising Research 43, no. 2 (2003), 141.

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  39. For a critical discussion on the commodification of culture see David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries Second edition (London: SAGE, 2007).

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  40. Films such as Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988),

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  41. Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful (1997)

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  42. and Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra (2009) are unsuitable for product placement and yet have all received both critics’ awards and global commercial success. In contrast, Italy’s latest box-office hits, for example, Che bella giornata (What a lovely day, 2011), Benvenuti al Sud (Welcome to the South, 2010) and Benvenuti al Nord (Welcome to the North, 2012) all featured prominent placements; despite enormous commercial success in the domestic market the films did not achieve any significant international distribution; see ANICA, Quaderno n. 5 L’export di cinema italiano, 2010.

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Authors
  1. Gloria Dagnino
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nottingham, UK

    Roberta Pearson

  2. University of Salford, UK

    Anthony N. Smith

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© 2015 Gloria Dagnino

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Dagnino, G. (2015). It’s a Branded New World: The Influence of State Policy upon Contemporary Italian Film Narrative. In: Pearson, R., Smith, A.N. (eds) Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388155_6

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