Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America

A Prime Time to Remember: Memory Merchandising in Globo’s Anos Rebeldes

r e b e c c a j . at e n c i o A Prime Time to Remember Memory Merchandising in Globo’s Anos Rebeldes O n the evening of 14 July 1992, an unprecedented event took place on Brazilian television: the premiere of the first serial drama ever to portray the political violence and repression that took place under the military regime. Airing on the Globo television network, the miniseries Anos Rebeldes (Rebel Years) transported an estimated thirty million viewers back to the authoritarian period through the fictional story of a group of high school friends who come of age during the most repressive phase of the dictatorship and whose fates become enmeshed with the political and cultural upheavals of the era.1 The plot revolved around two star-crossed lovers: João, a student activist whose youthful idealism eventually leads him to join the armed struggle, and Maria Lúcia, an individualist with little patience for political crusades. Not only did the drama feature a member of the resistance as its romantic lead, it also explored subjects rarely discussed before on the small screen, particularly torture and censorship. Anos Rebeldes is one of a growing number of Brazilian telenovelas, miniseries , and other entertainment programs that have revisited the turbulent period of the authoritarian regime.2 As Latin America’s dictatorships recede further into the past, stories about them are increasingly becoming fodder for “must-see TV,” and not just in Brazil, although the trend is most evident there.3 Brazilian telenovelas (or novelas, as they are commonly referred to) and miniseries are particularly well-suited as vehicles for marketing memory because of their characteristic realism and long tradition of discussing and interpreting controversial political and social issues.4 They 42 | rebecca j. atencio serve not only as “an echo chamber . . . for public debate”5 but also as “a central forum for the construction of the idea of nation.”6 Furthermore, by incorporating perspectives and social actors normally ignored by newscasts and other programming, novelas and miniseries have helped democratize Brazilian television, and even national culture.7 Even as far back as the dictatorship period, Brazilian scriptwriters—many of whom came from the political theater—found ways to explore subjects banned by government and internal censors, often by creating microcosms that served as allegories for the nation.8 This tradition of engaged programming has only strengthened since the transition to democracy. It has also been commodified with the advent, in the early 1990s, of what the Brazilian television industry calls “social merchandising,” the institutionalized practice of using telenovelas and miniseries to raise awareness about pressing social problems and issues related to public health and safety (such as domestic abuse, gun control, drug addiction, organ donation, and missing children) while boosting the broadcasting network’s profile as a socially responsible corporate citizen.9 Social merchandising applies the marketing principle of product placement (known as “merchandising” in Brazil), in which the conspicuous display or mention of a specific commercial good is deliberately woven into the plot of a telenovela or miniseries in exchange for a negotiated fee. The difference in the case of social merchandising is that the “product” being promoted is a message, issue, or behavior rather than a consumer item, and no monetary transaction takes place. In lieu of direct financial gain, networks profit indirectly from social merchandising by boosting their public image, which translates into larger audiences and more advertising revenue. The technique thus exemplifies media scholar Jesús Martín-Barbero’s assertion that Latin American telenovelas have a tendency to turn social demands into motives of profit.10 While promoting worthy causes is certainly a noble goal, it also serves as an effective strategy for connecting with viewers as consumers.11 Social merchandising not only explores social problems, it also presents strategies for resolving them that can be emulated in daily life. It works by integrating a given issue into the plot or subplot of the novela or miniseries in question, thereby turning the fictional characters into credible “public-opinion-forming agents” with whom viewers can easily identify or empathize.12 The way social merchandising is developed varies depending on whether it is to be inserted into a telenovela or a miniseries. Novelas , which typically have 180 to 200 episodes and last an average of eight A Prime Time to Remember | 43 months or longer, are considered relatively “open” works: only the first...