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Product placement in books - a concept whose time has come?

Debate about whether literature is a legit, or desirable, venue for product placement was sparked by the recent publication of Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233. The manuscript for the teen-lit novel was edited to showcase Procter and Gamble beauty products with mentions of Cover Girl lip and eye makeup, and an illustration originally entitled "Artgirl Detective" changed to "Artist! Detective! UnderCover Girl."

But the commercialization of Cathy's Book didn't actually break new ground. To name just a few earlier examples, an Italian jewelry company commissioned Fay Weldon to feature its brand in a novel five years ago. The well-known British author went a step further, titling her book The Bulgari Connection. Ford Motors in the US paid author Carole Matthews to mention the Ford Fiesta in her 2004 novel The Sweetest Taboo. Crime novelist Bill Fitzhugh made a deal to mention Seagram's in his 2000 novel Cross Dressing. And author Meg Cabot recently hooked up with Clinique to promote her latest young adult book, How To Be Popular, to include a set of Clinique stickers for marking readers' favourite scenes.

Interestingly, P&G didn't pay either the publisher of Cathy's Book or its authors, Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman, for the Cover Girl mentions. What the company did offer was an ongoing promotion of the book on its Beinggirl.com website, which is directed at adolescents and contains makeup tips, games and advice.

That move signaled something that's at least as noteworthy as the product placement issue. Cathy's Book was cleverly augmented to appeal to technologically savvy teenagers. And it's anything but coincidental that its authors' marketing know-how was honed when they did a promo campaign for Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: A.I that involved planting clues about the 2001 movie on the Internet, cellphones and billboards and in newspapers.

In similar fashion, Cathy's Book includes a sleeve of letters, invitations, pictures and other items that are actually clues to solving the mystery of what happened to Cathy's boyfriend. The telephone number in the book's title leads to an outgoing voicemail message from Cathy, and other portions of the book are meant to drive readers to voicemail messages and websites. Some of the characters have pages on MySpace.com, and a movie-style trailer for the book is set to appear on AOL and YouTube.

"When you think about it, literature must seem to young readers like a strangely antiseptic universe, wholly devoid of the art form they know best: advertising" - opined the New York Times in a recent editorial about the product placements in Cathy's Book. That insight prompted MiC to ask both a media professional and a publishing vet for their views on how best to connect with 21st century readers.

Said Brenda Bookbinder, non-broadcast director at Toronto's PHD agency: "One person's blasphemy is another's opportunity (and) choice is a good thing. Is product placement ... a foreboding slippery slope? Probably. Unavoidable? Likely. Is it an opportunity for advertisers? Definitely.

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