Product placement in books: not exactly going away anytime soon

By Sarah on September 11, 2006 8:34 AM

Only a few years ago, when crime novelist Bill Fitzhugh struck a deal to mention Seagram’s in his novel CROSS DRESSING, the uproar was loud and long. Today? The practice has become so commonplace, as USA TODAY’s Laura Petrecca finds out, that complaining seems almost gauche. The latest example is CATHY’S BOOK, a novel due out Oct. 2 about a teen determined to find out why her boyfriend dumps her, then mysteriously disappears. Procter & Gamble wrote a deal with the authors to include products such as Cover Girl’s “Shimmering Onyx” eye shadow and “Metallic Rose” lipstick in exchange for promoting the book on P&G’s teen website BeingGirl.com.

Worldwide spending for paid product placement swelled 42.2% in 2005 to $2.2 billion, according to PQ Media. With non-cash promotion and barter deals included, the value of global placement in 2005 was up was 27.9% to $6 billion. And Carole Matthews, who included references to the Ford Fiesta in her 2004 novel THE SWEETEST TABOO, thinks authors deserve a piece of that. “No one bats an eyelid at all the product placement in films or the sponsorship of (shows) on TV, so why should commercial novels be any different?” Matthews said in an e-mail. “Literary snobs might say otherwise, but all of the major literary prizes are sponsored by corporate money, so they don’t mind taking the corporate (money) when it suits. I’d advise any writer to give it a go if the opportunity arises.”

Despite protests – including Commercial Alert’s letter to 305* book review editors asking them not to review it** – Matthews, and the authors of CATHY’S BOOK, Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman, defend the inclusion of products. And Mary-Lou Galician, head of Media Analysis & Criticism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University, says to expect more of the same. “It’s more and more difficult to reach consumers who are able to tune out ads that they don’t want,” Galician says. “The best way for advertisers to get their messages across is to put them in places where consumers have no choice but to see them.”

*Something tells me that number is very, very inflated…

**Ron found CA’s argument less than persuasive when we received their complaint back in June, after the NYT first reported on Cathy’s Book.