New Product Placement: Best-Selling Novels

Over the weekend, my wife sat down to read the latest James Patterson novel, “Cross.” This is the latest in a series of mystery thrillers featuring the hero Alex Cross, and I guess they’re pretty popular. My wife pointed out early in the book that Cross detailed a trip to a Mercedes-Benz dealer in detail, and it seemed odd to her — especially in the middle of the plot. Here’s that first excerpt:

“So we stopped at the Mercedes dealer…Jannie and Damon ogled a silver CLK500 Cabriolet convertible, while Ali and I tested out the spacious front seat of an R350. I was thinking family car — safety, beauty, resale value. Intellect and emotion.”

The italics are verbatim. He goes on to talk about the rest of the trip to the dealer, but resale value? Anyway, this takes up an entire chapter. Perhaps if it had been just one mention we wouldn’t have been disturbed, but then Cross goes and buys the R350 later and repeatedly goes for drives to clear his mind during the investigation. Even that wouldn’t be that bad if he didn’t describe the R350 each time like this: “I liked the vehicle’s zip and also the dual-dash zone climate control, which would keep everybody happy, even Nana Mama.”

Mercedes gets a handful of mentions in the best-selling fiction novel in the country, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Patterson were shuttling between book signings in a new R350 of his own. Even though this is a work of fiction, the repeated mentions bugged my wife a lot more than seeing James Bond drive an Aston Martin or the “CSI” staff in Hummers.

What do you think? Is product placement in print more bothersome than on the screen?

Comments

I'd take the book back and ask for refund. Can't do that with a movie but ya, it is more bothersome.

Regarding the "CSI Miami" staff driving around in Hummers. Is there any municipality foolish enough to blow it's budget on Hummers? I've noticed "CSI Las Vegas" uses Denalis instead of the more likely Suburban/Tahoe. Does this reflect more pooly on the city managers in Miami and Las Vegas or the writers of the series?

I can't say that I'm outraged. It's more of a disappointment, which is worse. I think we're all used to seeing product placements done in movies and tv, but it seems so wrong to see it in a book, but maybe I'm just a snob.

If we must resign ourselves to this, at least we should follow this thought:the best placements are the ones that are seemless. Not Mr. Cross' continuing commercial for the R350. It would have been a better service for Mr. Patterson and to Mercedes to be a bit more subtle.

Right we can tell that GM placed those hummers in the show, BUT you'd be surprised that Hummer donates Hummers to the Red Cross so there could be "deals" with local agencies for various brands. you never know.

For someone who reads a lot and watches a TON of TV, I can tell you it's not that obvious in TV as it is in books. For example, on Weeds in the intro they feature a coffee chain. I have no idea what that coffee chain is even though I watched the whole first season.

When you're seeing it in print, it's very blatant. For example, I loved Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's "Dirty Girls Social Club" but I was hugely disappointed by her follow up "Playing with the Boys" which was filled with product references.

I don't know if authors think they're being "more" detailed or if they are giving blatant product plugs, but I think it takes away from the story. In the Patterson "Cross" book he says "...an American Airlines" jet flying overhead. Did it really matter that it was an AA plane flying overhead? I think saying "a plane/jet flew overhead" would have sufficed.

While Patterson is a best-selling novelist, his writing doesn't match that of Hemingway or anyone of that caliber. And after Googling him and finding out that he has two Mercedes cars in his garage, I find it hard to believe there was no payola going on here, especially since he mentioned many other cars in this book including Toyotas and Lincolns but didn't give any details about their cargo size--which he gave on the Mercedes.

Yeah, I agree. This particular example is excessive. If I want that kind of detail in a vehicle review I'll pick up "Car and Driver". I read novels to escape from reality to some degree and that kind of promotion spoils the effect.

He's sold out. Borrow the book from the library, don't buy it. Save your money for OJ's new book.

I can totally see why product placement in a book can get a whole lot more irritating that on film. On screen placement can be much more subliminal while on print it gets pretty hard to justify mentioning anything that does not build the plot or characters.

It drove me nuts....but when I mentioned it on a James Patterson forum no one seemed to get it.

I maybe have been preaching to the sheep on that forum so I guess its obvious they were blind to it.

I am a huge JP fan but blatant advertising is still blatant advertising.