Advergames: a new way of advertising

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analise an advergame. A kind of advertisement offered by some brands on internet. Theoretical studies on internet advertising are still in a developing process in Brazil. The use of this kind of advertising had its explosion in recent years, but despite the widespread of the internet, its logic, language and boundaries are not yet completely understood. Advergames are presented as a hybrid media, a promising tool for professionals facing a crisis in traditional advertising. This paper analysis the advertising game “The impossible is possible: my life as a game”, by Coca Cola Zero, which tells the story of a young man seeking time to enjoy with friends and girlfriend. Some questions arise in this way: how cyberspace has been used for new advertising platforms and languages? How is possible perceive the narratives of current games look like the narratives of the novels, the modern soap operas and the movies in the construction of the hero in a game? How the sign processes are constructed to create an identifying process with the target audience in this advergame? Authors who guide this work are: Bakhtin (1997); Castells (2001); Santaella (2002 and 2005) Jung (2008; Correia and Pereira (2009); Nesteriuk (2009); Feitoza and Santaella (2009), Novak (2010); McGonigal (2012); Nöth and Santaella (2012); Mlodinow (2013). Initial results lead us to an understanding of the continued use of everyday referentiality of the young consumer, which is a common citizen immersed in the postmodern world that has as the villain the time. This narrative is a texture that intercept the world where Coke Zero is inserted to help the citizen (the hero) and establish a reality where happiness is always present.