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.tightly diversified mediaconglomerates, which favours texts strategically 'open' to multiplereadings and multimedia reiteration.In the entertainment business, horizontal integration has conjured upbelief in the power of 'synergy'.A buzzword of modern marketing, synergydescribes the opportunity to sell a single property or concept acrossseveral markets in ways that provide for the interaction and synchronisa-tion of promotional energies.Mixing ownership of film rights with assetsin television production and broadcasting, together with their ownconsumer product licensing divisions, the horizontally integrated mediaand entertainment conglomerates are ideally placed to see returns fromnumerous revenue streams relating to a single property.In theentertainment business, the idea of synergy suggests that the promotionof a film may sell the soundtrack record, which will help sales of toys andother merchandising, and later a television spin off possibly, all of whichwill enhance the making of a movie into an event.In the workings of synergy, stars can be used to market a propertyacross different media.Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) made effectiveuse of Will Smith around the promotion of Men in Black (1997).As a hybridmixture of comedy, action, science fiction and conspiracy theorynarratives, the film entertained a broad spectrum of tastes across bothchild and adult audiences.Although the film co-starred Tommy Lee Jones,the identity of Smith was principally used to sell the Men In Black conceptacross various media.Originally a rap artist, appearing at the end of the1980s as the 'Fresh Prince' with DJ Jazzy Jeff, Smith moved on to become acomic television actor with his lead in the series 'The Fresh Prince of Bel86 THE STAR SYSTEMAir' (1990-1996).After signing to Sony Music Entertainment (SME), hebuilt a successful solo singing career with the albums 'Big Willie Style'(Sony Music, 1997) and 'Willenium' (Sony Music, 1999).Prior to SPE'sopening of Men in Black in the United States during the summer season of1997, SME released Smith's single of the same name.With a videofeaturing extracts from the movie, song and film served to mutuallypromote each other.For Men in Black the image of the suited heroes, masked by sunglasses(a product placement openly referenced in advertisements by Rayban, themanufacturer), appeared across posters and other promotional materialsto brand the film with a noirish but highly glossy style.Wyatt (1994) seesthe use of a uniform style as central to the marketability of the highconcept property.When considering the use of style in the selling of theMen in Black concept, Smith's racial identity cannot be seen as anaccidental factor, for it is possible to see Smith's colour, plus hisbackground in rap, as making 'blackness' a factor in marketing the film as'hip'.The look of the film was therefore intimately linked with its star.Synergy may be a provocative idea but it is possible to over-estimateits actual effect and impact on contemporary Hollywood and the starsystem.Will Smith, a mixture of equally successful music star and filmstar, is uncharacteristic of modern stardom.If anything, the crossing overof music and film careers is more representative of a previous era of starssuch as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.Smith'sexample also shows that synergy does not always work.After the successof Men in Black, Sony attempted to repeat the formula with Wild Wild West(1999).Again a hybrid mixture of genres, with Smith in the lead role andsupported by a soundtrack single from him, neither film nor recordmatched the performance of the previous phenomenon.At the theatricalbox office, Wild Wild West grossed $114 million in North America, and$104 million internationally, compared to Men in Blacks $250 milliondomestic takings and $313 million overseas.With further consideration, evidence of synergy working appearsconfined to examples of children's cinema.Disney in particular hasproved adept at marketing the studio's animated family features across87 SHORT CUTSmany media and consumer products, a success that does not involve theparticipation of live action stars.Apart from soundtrack singles andalbums, adult audiences do not seem to be swayed to make purchases offranchised movie tie-ins.Beliefs in synergy may evoke images of amonolithic, fully integrated entertainment marketplace, with the images ofstars used to crystallise popular concepts in the horizontally integratedHollywood
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