It apparently is not a new phenomenon. I found a discussion of literary product placment in a 2006 New York Times article, and this egregious example cited at Cars.com:
Over the weekend, my wife sat down to read the latest James Patterson novel, “Cross.” ... My wife pointed out early in the book that Cross detailed a trip to a Mercedes-Benz dealer in detail, and it seemed odd to her — especially in the middle of the plot. Here’s that first excerpt:I'll defer any personal commentary.
“So we stopped at the Mercedes dealer…Jannie and Damon ogled a silver CLK500 Cabriolet convertible, while Ali and I tested out the spacious front seat of an R350. I was thinking family car — safety, beauty, resale value. Intellect and emotion.”The italics are verbatim. He goes on to talk about the rest of the trip to the dealer, but resale value? Anyway, this takes up an entire chapter. Perhaps if it had been just one mention we wouldn’t have been disturbed, but then Cross goes and buys the R350 later and repeatedly goes for drives to clear his mind during the investigation. Even that wouldn’t be that bad if he didn’t describe the R350 each time like this: “I liked the vehicle’s zip and also the dual-dash zone climate control, which would keep everybody happy, even Nana Mama.”
If you are not into product placement in a book, then you should avoid the Girl with the dragon tattoo.
ReplyDeleteSomeone bought me a copy.
It is a truly awful book.
As for product placement. The writer likes computer products with a fruit logo.
Really an awful book.
I can't beleive how many people adore that book.It seems featured in many bookclubs too, now I have an idea why.
ReplyDeleteHere's the correct cars.com link:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2006/11/patterson_merce.html
Oops. I must have entered it twice. Fixed. Thanks, Jude.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion we should expect more and more product placement in the novels, although the majority will be unpaid.
Here are two of my blog posts where I gave my opinion on that subject:
http://brandsandfilms.com/2010/12/the-girl-who-played-with-ikea/
http://brandsandfilms.com/2010/09/why-its-important-to-have-brands-in-books/
Erik
You present an interesting (and useful) viewpoint in your blog posts, Erik. My own response to product placement is strongly dependent on how the author (or filmmaker) inserts the information. Certainly I would accept a car for James Bond or clothing for a Miami Vice detective as being defining characteristics - but the example I cited in the post is too egregiously "in your face" advertising for my taste.
ReplyDeleteI think Americans are consumerist enough that
ReplyDeletea) these kind of references are effective at rounding out what kind of character a person is and b) they actually read the novel looking for these kind of status cues, the better to know what other consumerists will think is cool.
Interesting...I just encountered this in Patricia Cornwell's latest novel, Port Mortuary. I didn't stop reading, but it was blatant enough to give me pause. Are these authors actually getting paid for this kind of product placement?
ReplyDeleteKate, your comment is interesting because it was Patricia Cornwell that my wife was referring to. She also found this comment about Cornwell by a reviewer:
ReplyDelete"I hope Apple paid her for the numerous mentions of their famous phone because the gratuitous product placement didn’t help the book in any way. No one I know mentions the brand of their phone every time they check the thing for messages."
Hack again?!
ReplyDelete