Product Placement In Children’s Books??

Call me naive, but I thought that books were one of the few places people were protected from the onslaught of advertising. This New York Times article says differently–that 2006 YA book Cathy’s Book: If Found Call 650-266-8233 was loaded with product placements for Cover Girl, and that Mackenzie Blue, an upcoming series for tweens by HarperCollins, is actively searching out companies to sponsor the book, which would then be featured in the story. This makes me shudder. It makes me feel both sick and angry.

I can understand using the odd throwaway product name here or there, since many of us inadvertently use them in our speech (such as Kleenix for tissue, or the way some people say iPod for MP3 player)–but not littered throughout a story, and NOT with the intent to gain money from a company in exchange for the mention of that company’s name or product. That cheapens and demeans a book, taking it from a story that (hopefully) has depth, thoughtful character development, plot, and entertainment to a thinly disguised ad.

photo: Photo Gallery @ Flickr

Aren’t we besieged with ads enough as it is? It’s sickening enough to see in some movies, and scary to realize how much is in a movie if you go back over it later. But in books–and in children’s and YA books, of all books? I wish publishers would just let art be art. We all deserve to have a place without ads–and books are it. A place where we can read and breathe and just absorb the goodness in a book, and not have to worry about whether we’re getting sucked into this message or that message about a product.

Good books, good writing, inspire readers. They make readers think and feel and care, along with the characters and the events in the story. They encourage readers to vicariously experience new experiences, and also to sort through emotions, thoughts, opinions on so many things. Books are vital, not only to imagination and mental growth, but also to the soul. And now some books are going to be poisoned with ads?

I know most writers don’t make very much money. I know publishers always want to make more. But destroying the value of a book by making it a literary ad is not the way to go.

I hope there’s enough of an outcry that this new trend stops right here. We don’t need more advertising to gunk up our brains, overwhelm us. We need powerful stories, strong characters, flights of imagination, all the things that make wonderful books, stir hearts and souls, and get kids dreaming and thinking.

Thanks to Jen Robinson’s post on this and link to the New York Times article and Finding Wonderland’s thoughtful posts on this (which I also found through Jen). Gail Guthier also has a post on this issue over at Original Content, looking at it from the writer’s perspective, Read Roger has a short sarcastic and to-the-point mention of HarperCollins’ product placement plans (and a lot of discussion in comments), and The Longstockings also have a discussion going.

I think if these books get published, they should come with a warning label–’advertising inside’ or something like that. Really, I don’t think they should get published at all.
So what do you think?

February 27th, 2008