Abstract
The study examines systemic transformations in contemporary commercial campaigns, as represented by creative work officially acknowledged at prestigious international advertising competitions. The analysis explores innovative techniques that intertwine commercial realities with fictional presences, imaginary worlds, and digitally mastered content, employing intertextual and hypertextual strategies. Available specialised research predominantly addresses virtual realities within gaming and the traditional separation between digital and offline advertising, leaving a gap regarding the deliberate blending of ontological layers in brands’ communication. Drawing on Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality, the research analyses how distinct worlds alternate within brand story, leading to hybrid products and influencing the commercial narrative. The dataset comprises award-winning advertising case studies from 2024–2025, highlighting mainstream trends, the relation between reality and fiction, and contemporary creative techniques utilised in the advertising rhetoric. In their endeavour to create and promote methodologies, brands operate with established categories of realities, recycling, overlapping, or even juxtaposing socio-cultural references, while also challenging notions of credibility and authenticity. Conclusions discuss the growing preference for inserting alternative worlds in advertising campaigns and encourage further exploration into how these intersections elicit behavioural responses. Highly inclusive and fluid, the contemporary advertising language welcomes the blend of eclectic realities, opening new interrogations on brand storytelling criteria and communication platforms’ selection.
Presenters
Alina BuzatuAssociate Lecturer, Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Creative Advertising, Digital Platforms, Reality, Fiction, Hypertext
