The Emotionalisation of National Brands in Austrian Commercials 1950-2000

More than any other medium, the film knows how to communicate messages and evoke emotions at the various sensual levels. Film makers and advertising strategists consciously count on internalised cultural and film codes to create tension and raise attention as well as to create closeness and identification patterns. In the second half of the 20th century, film and TV became essential key media. A scientific study on the way in which products were communicated in Austria after 1945 thus requires taking cinema and TV commercials into consideration. In the context of the suggested project, for the first time national emotionalisation strategies will be analysed as they were used for Austrian commercials (nine brands) from the years 1950-2000. The case of Austria is of particular interest in so far as the development of a national identity happened only after World War II. This process came along with the establishment of the consumer society as well as with the rise of the Austrian production of commercials. Whereas there exist extensive studies on the development of Austrian national identity and there have also been some important works on the way in which national brands were communicated, the Austrian advertising films have hardly been noticed by research. For the time being, these three research fields have not been systematically brought together, something which will be done for the first time by this project. Starting out from the thesis that in the early post-war period Austrian commercials purposefully refer to national myths and symbols to use them for advertising Austrian brands since 1950 at the latest, it will be analysed which cinematic emotionalsiation strategies were chosen to transfer such contents. This project is considered to be methodically innovative, as it will research the transfer of national contents by way of commercials in the historic context on the one hand while taking economic, political, social and cultural aspects into consideration and on the other hand it will structurally and by way of detailed analyses investigate the employed cinematic emotionalisation strategies. Currently, such a research approach is unique both for Austrian and international research. It does not only promise to provide insights on Austrias economic, social and cultural history as well as film studies but will also be perceived internationally.

The project aimed to investigate national emotionalisation strategies in Austrian advertising films of the years 1950-2000 by using nine selected brands. For the first time the research fields of Austrian nation building, product communication and commercials were combined. 663 films were examined with regard to the use of national symbols and motifs as well as emotionalisation strategies. Two phases were identified in which national references were particularly frequently used: In the immediate post-war period up to the early 1960s and in the late 1990s, after Austria had joined the EU. The most frequently occurring national codes were "language modes, dialect and idiom" (22 %), "idols and celebrities" (14 %), "Austria-specific leisure activities" (12 %) and "references to the federal capital Vienna" (9 %). With regard to the also examined accumulation of "desired images" and "horror scenarios", there was a clear tendency towards positive wishful thinking (e.g. "development of personality" 16%, "beauty/erotic attraction" 10 %, "unbroken relationship to tradition" 8 %). Products and brands that presented themselves in a modern and progressive way relied on rhythmic, contemporary popular music or technical sound effects, preferred tension-generating movement stimuli (montage rapid, rapid panning shots, diagonal perspectives, rapid change of plot axes etc.) and reflected popular media currents (video clips, TV series etc.). Products and brands that presented themselves as traditional and trustworthy preferred the use of Austrian icons (sights, landscapes) and celebrities as well as musical elements that are regarded as specifically Austrian (folk music, classical pieces). In these films a realistic, harmonious atmosphere was created using entertaining music, regional humour, linear and logical narrative strategies. The image compositions and the settings related to well-known scenarios of the so-called "Heimatfilm" and tourism films. Over the decades, stylistic changes in advertising films have been identified. The films became shorter and more concise, individualized life worlds took centre stage. Traditional role models dominated advertising films until the late 1990s. Austria's ethnic minorities were systematically ignored in commercials. Only in the late 1990s some commercials reflected Austrian citizens with a migration background. Materials on advertising campaigns and expert interviews with advertising film producers, directors and marketing managers made it possible to identify work processes and strategies as well as links between marketing departments, production companies, artists and advertising agencies. The project results will be published in a new scientific series ("Advertising - Consumption - History") as monographs and anthologies. The research results should give impetus to further comparative studies in the fields of "nation building", "emotionalisation" and "advertising" in a European and/or global context.