ABSTRACT

This essay examines domestic and international marketing campaigns for the Australian prison drama, Wentworth (Foxtel, 2013–Present), as an intervention into the relationship between (digital) marketing strategies and fan engagement with televisual ideologies. We comment on how three manifestations of marketing (via two campaigns) connect back to automatization, capitalism, incarceration, and media using both technological automation and fan labor—and argue that the campaigns’ use of automation and participatory culture exploited fan communication and fetishized incarceration for capitalistic gain. Extending previous scholarship around participatory culture’s reliance on audience labor and applying a critical cultural studies lens, we elucidate how the show utilized cross-cultural marketing approaches that stood at ideological odds with the show’s content. The first campaign, Australia’s Foxtel promotion of Season Five, employed full automatization to alter the fan viewing experience and maximize profits. The second campaign by Spain’s Calle 13 promoted the series’ Spanish debut. The backdrop for Calle 13’s campaign was drastically different, including only partial automation. It reduced fan interaction and used participatory culture to collect audience information. Both campaigns commercialized fan culture and utilized varying levels of automation to more firmly position prison as an entertainment landscape, simultaneously de-humanizing the experiences of women inmates offscreen.

摘要

本文考察了澳大利亚监狱剧《温特沃斯》的国内外营销活动（Foxtel，2013 年至今），作为对（数字）营销策略和粉丝参与电视意识形态之间关系的干预。我们评论了营销的三种表现（通过两个活动）如何使用技术自动化和粉丝劳动与自动化、资本主义、监禁和媒体联系起来——并认为这些活动对自动化和参与式文化的使用利用了粉丝交流和迷恋监禁为了资本的利益。围绕参与式文化对观众劳动力的依赖并应用批判性文化研究的视角扩展先前的学术研究，我们阐明了该节目如何利用与节目内容在意识形态上存在分歧的跨文化营销方法。第一个活动，澳大利亚的 Foxtel 宣传第五季，采用全自动化来改变粉丝观看体验并最大化利润。西班牙 Calle 13 的第二个广告系列宣传了该系列的西班牙首秀。Calle 13 活动的背景完全不同，仅包括部分自动化。它减少了粉丝互动并使用参与式文化来收集观众信息。这两个活动都将粉丝文化商业化，并利用不同程度的自动化将监狱更牢固地定位为娱乐景观，同时使女性囚犯在屏幕外的体验去人性化。它减少了粉丝互动并使用参与式文化来收集观众信息。这两个活动都将粉丝文化商业化，并利用不同程度的自动化将监狱更牢固地定位为娱乐景观，同时使女性囚犯在屏幕外的体验去人性化。它减少了粉丝互动并使用参与式文化来收集观众信息。这两个活动都将粉丝文化商业化，并利用不同程度的自动化将监狱更牢固地定位为娱乐景观，同时使女性囚犯在屏幕外的体验去人性化。