The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I haven't visited these forums for several weeks due to my computer breaking, so I don't know if this topic has been covered by anyone else, but seeing as this is one of those things that really winds me up I thought I would have my say...
Fay Weldon, the writer of over twenty novels, has just released her latest book, 'The Bulgari Connection'. For those who are ignorant when it comes to the world of obscenely expensive fashion (such as myself), Bulgari is a top of the range jewellers. And to get their name in the title of this book, they payed Fay Weldon an undisclosed (but probably huge) sum of money.
Product placement is nothing new in our world of cross-marketed, synergised media products. A Hollywood film will generally have a number of corporate partners who pay big bucks to have Lara Croft use their mobile phone, James Bond drive their car or Hannibal Lector drink their chianti! Likewise, television programmes are often sponsered by companies who use the programmes reputation to improve their image and make more profits.
We are bombarded with adverts from every direction all day, every day. It is bad enough that films and television have become billboards for companies such as Pepsi, Rolex and Nokia, without literature going the same way.
I don't have a problem with brand names appearing in print -they are, afterall, an unfortunate part of our everyday life. But when an author is accepting money to help sell a companies products, the reader is being seriously shortchanged. Why should we have to put up with a greedy author trying to sell us hamburgers, perfume or alcohol when we are reading? They have no right to dupe us into buying a book that is nothing more than glorified sales literature. Books are supposed to provide escapism, not advertising!
Several reviewers in the newspapers have commented that it is nothing new for artists or writers to be commisioned to create pieces for companies or individuals. Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who painted only three paintings without a commision, has been cited as an example. However, I would argue that this is Da Vinci's greatest downfall. He achieved some fantastic things and is considered as one of the worlds greatest artists. But imagine if he had had the initiative to create more works without the security of a commision. He could have left a far larger and wider-ranging lagacy than the one he did. The insistance of artists such as Da Vinci to secure commisions is not something that we should aim to replicate -artists have to push boundaries and explore new areas, not just do what a corporate sponser asks them to do.
Even for those who see no ethical problems with selling your soul to the marketing men, using brand names as a central part of your writing is just plain stupid. Bulgari have built up an image through marketing and promotion that they feel will make their product desirable to a certain group of people. Fay Weldon has used this image to create the same sense of desire in her novel -but what happens if Bulgari's image changes? It means that 'The Bulgari Connection' will no longer be understood by a contempory audience and will be consigned to the dumper. For example, imagine you had written a book that traded on the image of Marks and Spencers back in the days when Marks and Spencers was considered to be a high quality fashionable store. Nowadays, of course, Marks and Spencers is seen as unfashionable and so the message behind the book would have changed and would now seem outdated. If Fay Weldon wanted to demonstrate how desirable the jewellry in her novel is then she should have done so with the quality of her writing, not by lazily using a brand name.
I hope that Fay Weldon's book is a one off and that corporate sponsorship of novels doesn't become popular. Corporations already have too much control of the media and the written word should not be snapped up by profit-hungry companies, desperate to cash in on the success of the latest hot author. Whilst Fay Weldon's novel may not seem like the end of the world as we know it, it could have a lasting affect on literature if it is a success.
Fay Weldon, the writer of over twenty novels, has just released her latest book, 'The Bulgari Connection'. For those who are ignorant when it comes to the world of obscenely expensive fashion (such as myself), Bulgari is a top of the range jewellers. And to get their name in the title of this book, they payed Fay Weldon an undisclosed (but probably huge) sum of money.
Product placement is nothing new in our world of cross-marketed, synergised media products. A Hollywood film will generally have a number of corporate partners who pay big bucks to have Lara Croft use their mobile phone, James Bond drive their car or Hannibal Lector drink their chianti! Likewise, television programmes are often sponsered by companies who use the programmes reputation to improve their image and make more profits.
We are bombarded with adverts from every direction all day, every day. It is bad enough that films and television have become billboards for companies such as Pepsi, Rolex and Nokia, without literature going the same way.
I don't have a problem with brand names appearing in print -they are, afterall, an unfortunate part of our everyday life. But when an author is accepting money to help sell a companies products, the reader is being seriously shortchanged. Why should we have to put up with a greedy author trying to sell us hamburgers, perfume or alcohol when we are reading? They have no right to dupe us into buying a book that is nothing more than glorified sales literature. Books are supposed to provide escapism, not advertising!
Several reviewers in the newspapers have commented that it is nothing new for artists or writers to be commisioned to create pieces for companies or individuals. Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who painted only three paintings without a commision, has been cited as an example. However, I would argue that this is Da Vinci's greatest downfall. He achieved some fantastic things and is considered as one of the worlds greatest artists. But imagine if he had had the initiative to create more works without the security of a commision. He could have left a far larger and wider-ranging lagacy than the one he did. The insistance of artists such as Da Vinci to secure commisions is not something that we should aim to replicate -artists have to push boundaries and explore new areas, not just do what a corporate sponser asks them to do.
Even for those who see no ethical problems with selling your soul to the marketing men, using brand names as a central part of your writing is just plain stupid. Bulgari have built up an image through marketing and promotion that they feel will make their product desirable to a certain group of people. Fay Weldon has used this image to create the same sense of desire in her novel -but what happens if Bulgari's image changes? It means that 'The Bulgari Connection' will no longer be understood by a contempory audience and will be consigned to the dumper. For example, imagine you had written a book that traded on the image of Marks and Spencers back in the days when Marks and Spencers was considered to be a high quality fashionable store. Nowadays, of course, Marks and Spencers is seen as unfashionable and so the message behind the book would have changed and would now seem outdated. If Fay Weldon wanted to demonstrate how desirable the jewellry in her novel is then she should have done so with the quality of her writing, not by lazily using a brand name.
I hope that Fay Weldon's book is a one off and that corporate sponsorship of novels doesn't become popular. Corporations already have too much control of the media and the written word should not be snapped up by profit-hungry companies, desperate to cash in on the success of the latest hot author. Whilst Fay Weldon's novel may not seem like the end of the world as we know it, it could have a lasting affect on literature if it is a success.
I haven't visited these forums for several weeks due to my computer breaking, so I don't know if this topic has been covered by anyone else, but seeing as this is one of those things that really winds me up I thought I would have my say...
Fay Weldon, the writer of over twenty novels, has just released her latest book, 'The Bulgari Connection'. For those who are ignorant when it comes to the world of obscenely expensive fashion (such as myself), Bulgari is a top of the range jewellers. And to get their name in the title of this book, they payed Fay Weldon an undisclosed (but probably huge) sum of money.
Product placement is nothing new in our world of cross-marketed, synergised media products. A Hollywood film will generally have a number of corporate partners who pay big bucks to have Lara Croft use their mobile phone, James Bond drive their car or Hannibal Lector drink their chianti! Likewise, television programmes are often sponsered by companies who use the programmes reputation to improve their image and make more profits.
We are bombarded with adverts from every direction all day, every day. It is bad enough that films and television have become billboards for companies such as Pepsi, Rolex and Nokia, without literature going the same way.
I don't have a problem with brand names appearing in print -they are, afterall, an unfortunate part of our everyday life. But when an author is accepting money to help sell a companies products, the reader is being seriously shortchanged. Why should we have to put up with a greedy author trying to sell us hamburgers, perfume or alcohol when we are reading? They have no right to dupe us into buying a book that is nothing more than glorified sales literature. Books are supposed to provide escapism, not advertising!
Several reviewers in the newspapers have commented that it is nothing new for artists or writers to be commisioned to create pieces for companies or individuals. Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who painted only three paintings without a commision, has been cited as an example. However, I would argue that this is Da Vinci's greatest downfall. He achieved some fantastic things and is considered as one of the worlds greatest artists. But imagine if he had had the initiative to create more works without the security of a commision. He could have left a far larger and wider-ranging lagacy than the one he did. The insistance of artists such as Da Vinci to secure commisions is not something that we should aim to replicate -artists have to push boundaries and explore new areas, not just do what a corporate sponser asks them to do.
Even for those who see no ethical problems with selling your soul to the marketing men, using brand names as a central part of your writing is just plain stupid. Bulgari have built up an image through marketing and promotion that they feel will make their product desirable to a certain group of people. Fay Weldon has used this image to create the same sense of desire in her novel -but what happens if Bulgari's image changes? It means that 'The Bulgari Connection' will no longer be understood by a contempory audience and will be consigned to the dumper. For example, imagine you had written a book that traded on the image of Marks and Spencers back in the days when Marks and Spencers was considered to be a high quality fashionable store. Nowadays, of course, Marks and Spencers is seen as unfashionable and so the message behind the book would have changed and would now seem outdated. If Fay Weldon wanted to demonstrate how desirable the jewellry in her novel is then she should have done so with the quality of her writing, not by lazily using a brand name.
I hope that Fay Weldon's book is a one off and that corporate sponsorship of novels doesn't become popular. Corporations already have too much control of the media and the written word should not be snapped up by profit-hungry companies, desperate to cash in on the success of the latest hot author. Whilst Fay Weldon's novel may not seem like the end of the world as we know it, it could have a lasting affect on literature if it is a success.
Fay Weldon, the writer of over twenty novels, has just released her latest book, 'The Bulgari Connection'. For those who are ignorant when it comes to the world of obscenely expensive fashion (such as myself), Bulgari is a top of the range jewellers. And to get their name in the title of this book, they payed Fay Weldon an undisclosed (but probably huge) sum of money.
Product placement is nothing new in our world of cross-marketed, synergised media products. A Hollywood film will generally have a number of corporate partners who pay big bucks to have Lara Croft use their mobile phone, James Bond drive their car or Hannibal Lector drink their chianti! Likewise, television programmes are often sponsered by companies who use the programmes reputation to improve their image and make more profits.
We are bombarded with adverts from every direction all day, every day. It is bad enough that films and television have become billboards for companies such as Pepsi, Rolex and Nokia, without literature going the same way.
I don't have a problem with brand names appearing in print -they are, afterall, an unfortunate part of our everyday life. But when an author is accepting money to help sell a companies products, the reader is being seriously shortchanged. Why should we have to put up with a greedy author trying to sell us hamburgers, perfume or alcohol when we are reading? They have no right to dupe us into buying a book that is nothing more than glorified sales literature. Books are supposed to provide escapism, not advertising!
Several reviewers in the newspapers have commented that it is nothing new for artists or writers to be commisioned to create pieces for companies or individuals. Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who painted only three paintings without a commision, has been cited as an example. However, I would argue that this is Da Vinci's greatest downfall. He achieved some fantastic things and is considered as one of the worlds greatest artists. But imagine if he had had the initiative to create more works without the security of a commision. He could have left a far larger and wider-ranging lagacy than the one he did. The insistance of artists such as Da Vinci to secure commisions is not something that we should aim to replicate -artists have to push boundaries and explore new areas, not just do what a corporate sponser asks them to do.
Even for those who see no ethical problems with selling your soul to the marketing men, using brand names as a central part of your writing is just plain stupid. Bulgari have built up an image through marketing and promotion that they feel will make their product desirable to a certain group of people. Fay Weldon has used this image to create the same sense of desire in her novel -but what happens if Bulgari's image changes? It means that 'The Bulgari Connection' will no longer be understood by a contempory audience and will be consigned to the dumper. For example, imagine you had written a book that traded on the image of Marks and Spencers back in the days when Marks and Spencers was considered to be a high quality fashionable store. Nowadays, of course, Marks and Spencers is seen as unfashionable and so the message behind the book would have changed and would now seem outdated. If Fay Weldon wanted to demonstrate how desirable the jewellry in her novel is then she should have done so with the quality of her writing, not by lazily using a brand name.
I hope that Fay Weldon's book is a one off and that corporate sponsorship of novels doesn't become popular. Corporations already have too much control of the media and the written word should not be snapped up by profit-hungry companies, desperate to cash in on the success of the latest hot author. Whilst Fay Weldon's novel may not seem like the end of the world as we know it, it could have a lasting affect on literature if it is a success.
What I can't get my head around is the fact that Fay Weldon is known as a femenist writer. "Adventures of a She Devil" and the like. In all of her books she has she has female characters who have some kind of epiphany - usually due to the cruelty and inadequacies of men - and comes back bigger and stronger and generally to reek revenge. This seems sligthly at odds with high class jewelery.
Expensive jewellery is stereotypically seen as a means to buy a woman. Engagement rings and at the other extreme baubles for kept women and mistresses. Whatever the arguments about product placement it just seems an odd choice of writer for Bulgari to choose. I'd have thought Barbar Taylor Bradford or Jackie Collins would have been more obvious choices.
Expensive jewellery is stereotypically seen as a means to buy a woman. Engagement rings and at the other extreme baubles for kept women and mistresses. Whatever the arguments about product placement it just seems an odd choice of writer for Bulgari to choose. I'd have thought Barbar Taylor Bradford or Jackie Collins would have been more obvious choices.
I totally agree i'm fed up with seeing seeing the stars advertising products in their films and books. A classic example is that in the films and games Bond advertises motorola and also laras croft advertises a mobile phone company in her film.
Why is this going on, I mean in every tv program I wwatch there an advert break so why not stick to these, rather these people using films and books as advertisments.
Why is this going on, I mean in every tv program I wwatch there an advert break so why not stick to these, rather these people using films and books as advertisments.