How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Product Placement

Until recently I thought of product placement as the corporate sponsorship only of movies and television. In the past I, like many, railed against it as the destroyer of all things creative and I never would have seen product placement in books. It made me want to watch only the indiest of indie films. It made me want to make fun of people who wore corporate logos. During this time I didn't have a television (of course I didn't) so avoiding this kind of advertising wasn't all that difficult.

Eventually my views grew more nuanced, especially as I ended up marrying someone with a TV and I grew to like a few shows. I started using a DVR and downloaded a bit more, too. This meant I saw fewer ads. Advertisers needed to find a way to get their messages in front of people; because (let's face it) they aren't going to go away. Placements are something that will continue to increase in frequency because of the way our viewing habits have changed. While I still don't like it, I understand that there's more to it than a simple sellout. There is the advertising issue I already mentioned, and - as distasteful as it is - it has become a standard part of raising funds in Hollywood for both television and movies.

Anyway, my uneasy truce with product placement carried on for a few years until I spotted some product placement in a book. "No," I thought, "It can't be. Not in a book." As luck would have it, I was dead wrong.