This Explains A Lot

A Boston Globe article entitled 'Opal' aided by marketing firm that targets teens includes the following:

"More than books for reading, Alloy titles are content packages, with potential for advertising and cross-marketing. The Alloy website says, ''Advertisers have the opportunity to get their products or services cast in these best-selling books. The value of these mentions far exceeds the hundreds of thousands of readers, creating a viral product buzz." It is not known publicly whether Manolo Blahnik, Habitual jeans, or La Perla bras paid for their mentions in ''Opal Mehta.""

I couldn't find that particular quote at the Alloy website, but I did find this on the page entitle BrandedEntertainment: "Alloy Entertainment's Branded Entertainment Division partners with clients to facilitate brand integration or product placement within popular youth media - books, internet, online gaming, film and TV. Brand integration inside our popular media formats speaks to consumers directly and as multi-tasking, on-demand and TIVO render the 30 second spot less powerful, is a means for delivering the brand to them."

Forget about Opal Mehta. She's toast. Think, instead, about The Gossip Girl, The A-List, and The Clique, all best-selling series loaded with product names used as adjectives.

And then recall that Alloy doesn't do the publishing of these books itself. No, it sells them to "brand name" publishers with departments dedicated to publishing children's books.

I'm thinking Feed. I'm thinking dystopian vision of the future. I'm thinking it's happening now.

Thanks to ArtsJournal.com for the link.