Product Placement in Literature.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I started reading 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' on a bus journey recently and I was struck by the extended reference to the brand names and qualities of all electrical goods used by the characters. It seems to me that somebody (Most likely the publisher given the authors unexpected death shortly after writing the Millennium Series) received payment to include these references. Has anybody encountered much of this in novels they have read? Its common practice in cinema and television but its generally more subtle.

Gneez

Not quite the same but I've read a series called the worldwar series, the premise is that a race invades earth during the height of ww2, thought I was getting a good war sci-fi series, the whole thing turned out to be pro-Israel and pro-jew propaganda, not joking, every main character was a jew, series was written by a jew, everyone who was not a jew was a stereotype and/or evil person, all the jewish characters were well adjusted people fighting oppression, everyone else was a sideshow. In fact now that I think of it I don't think I've ever read a book that painted jews as bad guys, guess it's not allowed.

Manach

Worldwar by Turtledove?
It covered multiple PoV, including various German Wehrmacht soldiers? The only drawback was the authors inablity to cut any prose from an increasing voluminous series.

baalthor

Some brands are so much a part of everyday life that not referring to them would strike the reader as unrealistic.
And chick-lit for example would be unimaginable without copious references to various brands of shoes, clothes, perfume and so on.
But that's not the same as inserting a brand name in return for payment although even the Bard himself is supposed to have done this !

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

baalthor wrote: »

Some brands are so much a part of everyday life that not referring to them would strike the reader as unrealistic.

Thats true, but there appears to be a deliberate effort to praise the brands in question.

Bearhunter

"In fact now that I think of it I don't think I've ever read a book that painted jews as bad guys, guess it's not allowed."

Seriously, you've never read the Merchant of Venice?

Gneez

Manach wrote: »

Worldwar by Turtledove?
It covered multiple PoV, including various German Wehrmacht soldiers? The only drawback was the authors inablity to cut any prose from an increasing voluminous series.

The fact that 7 out of 10 of the main characters were jews didn't strike you as odd? and the fact that everyone else except for that Wehrmacht panzer colonel was simply a generic bad guy or stereotype with no depth, I've never read such biased drivel in all my life as the worldwar series.

Bearhunter wrote: »

"In fact now that I think of it I don't think I've ever read a book that painted jews as bad guys, guess it's not allowed."

Seriously, you've never read the Merchant of Venice?

Written long long before the post ww2 age of political correctness where you will be ostracized or labelled an anti-semetic for saying a bad word about the jews in media, literature or arts.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Gneez wrote: »

Written long long before the post ww2 age of political correctness where you will be ostracized or labelled an anti-semetic for saying a bad word about the jews in media, literature or arts.

I highly await your thread asking what everyone thought about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

MissFlitworth

I don't think I've ever read a book as bad as the dragon tattoo series for product placement, it was seriously jarring at times! All the 'Lisabet took her [brandname] laptop out of her [brandname] bag, bought 3 years ago at the [brandname] electrical store at no 6 Rollmop St (ph 046 6060606 - ask for Janus)...' stuff was a mind melt. It was almost like it was written with the film version and plenty of $$$ in mind

Denerick

Gneez wrote: »

Not quite the same but I've read a series called the worldwar series, the premise is that a race invades earth during the height of ww2, thought I was getting a good war sci-fi series, the whole thing turned out to be pro-Israel and pro-jew propaganda, not joking, every main character was a jew, series was written by a jew, everyone who was not a jew was a stereotype and/or evil person, all the jewish characters were well adjusted people fighting oppression, everyone else was a sideshow. In fact now that I think of it I don't think I've ever read a book that painted jews as bad guys, guess it's not allowed.

As opposed to what, a book that paints blacks as bad guys or any racial or religious group as bad guys? There are bad people in every walk of life. your obsession with 'the joos' speaks volumes to be honest. Anti semities are anything if not subtle.

Gneez

Denerick wrote: »

As opposed to what, a book that paints blacks as bad guys or any racial or religious group as bad guys? There are bad people in every walk of life. your obsession with 'the joos' speaks volumes to be honest. Anti semities are anything if not subtle.

I like how your logic works.

2 posts on the topic = OBSESSION!

Point out that Jews are never portrayed as anything but great people in modern media = ANTI SEMITE!

Stay classy Denerick.

Denerick

Gneez wrote: »

I like how your logic works.

2 posts on the topic = OBSESSION!

Point out that Jews are never portrayed as anything but great people in modern media = ANTI SEMITE!

Stay classy Denerick.

Your choice of phrasology and absurd obsession with 'Jews' as if they are one colluding mass intent to prevent any member of their race getting abuse is utterly demented. You mustn't watch many political shows, especially in the US, as liberal democratic Jews are usually in the frontline of commonplace political bickering on right wing radio.

Actually I really don't know why I bother, your point had no merit and I shouldn't be humouring it by granting it a response.

Slow Show

I thought Larsson died before the books were published, so I don't really see how he could have, well, made a profit or anything from it, maybe he just wanted to paint a more realistic world. I read a theory online that the publisher added them to make some more cash, since it wasn't like Larsson could object to it, but that's just a theory.

I noticed it too, it didn't really bother me as much though, although descriptions of furniture from IKEA and purchases of its ilk irked me a little after a while, most of it just felt very unnecessary.

iguana

Nearly ten years ago chicklit author Marian Keyes wrote a book set in a literary agency. Part of the plot is how the lead character, who's having an affair with her boss, jokes with him about the awful future where they will be sourcing product placement deals for the book they agent. Jokingly she describes to him how it will work and how much money it will be worth. They laughingly agree about what a rancid world they will be. Later on her lover/boss doublecrosses her, gets her rival to initiate the product placement deal and promotes him ahead of her because he was willing to make the agency more money.

It seemed pretty clear that Keyes thought it was a crass, nasty idea and IIRC, made the idea a flop in her book's universe. But realistically, if publishers are making less money from sales, especially if filesharing of ebooks becomes commonplace, I think we'll start to see more and more heroes who just love the refreshing taste of Coke.

x_Ellie_x

Funny that you mention Coke. I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books and one of her characters is always drinking a Coke at some point in every book. There's also plenty of references to kelloggs cereals in the books (particularly Coco Pops). Oh and a facebook reference once or twice, some ipod references too.