Product Placement Practices in the Simulation Universe: Truman Show Analysis

The 1998 Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, includes a man named Truman Burbank, who has been ‘'Watching Us'' for 30 years. Everything around Burbank, who lives in a completely simulation universe, is fake. His mother, his father, his wife, his friends... This is a movie that has been released for a long time. This life on Seahaven Island, built by the construction company, becomes more and more suspicious for Truman, and feels something wrong. All the costs of this universe and construction are earned from the advertising and product placement practices performed at Truman show. The program that does not advertise at all claims to be life itself. In this study, Truman show content analysis method was analyzed in terms of simulation theory and product placement concepts of Baudrillard. According to the research results; in addition to telling the beginning of Truman Burbank, the Truman show is an important example of both a media critique and Baudrillard's theory of simulation.