Product Placement Biz Booming in Novels

Posted on June 12, 2006

Motoko Rich of The New York Times discusses the booming business of product placement in novels. The article says these promotions are still relatively rare. It mentions one deal with Cover Girl. Cover Girl did not pay but there was a cross promotional deal for the book.

Near the end of an early galley of Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233," a young adult novel that will be published in September, the spunky eponymous heroine talks about wearing a "killer coat of Clinique #11 'Black Violet' lipstick." But in the final edition of the book, that reference has been changed to "a killer coat of Lipslicks in 'Daring.'"
As it turns out, Lipslicks is a line of lip gloss made by Cover Girl, which has signed an unusual marketing partnership with Running Press, the unit of Perseus Books Group that is publishing the novel.
Cover Girl, which is owned by the consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, has neither paid the publisher nor the book's authors, Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman, for the privilege of having their makeup showcased in the novel. But Procter will promote the book on Beinggirl.com, a Web site directed at adolescent girls that has games, advice on handling puberty and, yes, makeup tips.

The Times says there are many brand references in today's young adult novels but they are not paid for. These include series like The Gossip Girl and The A-List where plenty of name brands dropped but nothing has been paid for by these brands. The Times does mention one brand deal for The Bulgari Connection.

But such deals are not unprecedented. Five years ago, Bulgari, the Italian jewelry company, paid Fay Weldon an undisclosed amount to feature the brand prominently in her novel, entitled - what else? - "The Bulgari Connection."

Did anyone actually read The Bulgari Connection? Product placement in books seems to lend itself more to certain genres than to others. For example, James Bond fans expected Ian Fleming to list the brand of watch that Bond wore (Rolex) and his preferred champagne (Bollinger). Fleming didn't get paid to mention those brands, they were simply a way of indicating that Bond liked the very best in everything from his champagne to his shoes. He may have unwittingly started a trend that will end in advertisements sprinkled liberally throughout all bestselling novels -- a horrifying thought, if you ask us.