Interesting article in yesterday’s Washington Post, “Read Any Good Ads Lately?”, about the growing trend of marketers commissioning original novels to plug their products. Profiled is Los Angeles author Mark Haskell Smith who was paid an undisclosed sum of money and the use of a Lexus in exchange for writing Black Sapphire Pearl, a serial novel published in three installments in the Lexus quarterly magazine (sent to owners) and on the company’s web site, which features interactive features such as profiles of the main characters like Lydia Stark (see below), crime writer and owner of a missing Lexus LS 460.

Lydia Stark

“I bet you don’t even have a fedora.�

A best-selling author whose 10 mysteries starring ace detective Theo Rose have been translated into 16 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Raised in the relative isolation and comfort of suburban Minneapolis, Lydia developed an interest in noir, hard-boiled detective fiction, and violent crime stories when she was left dateless for her high school prom.

Turn-ons: The Lexus LS 460, blue jeans, picnics, witty banter, a dry martini
Turnoffs: High school boys, Chihuahuas, diet soda
Favorite movie: L.A. Confidential
Favorite song: Anything she can dance to
Favorite book: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Life philosophy: “To thine own self be true. That’s the best advice ever given.�

“I can tell fact from fiction,” says the narrator in the opening chapter, but I wonder if readers can tell the fiction (or is it “fictomercial”?) from the branding. Then there is Electrolux’s comic Men in Aprons, available as a paperback or downloadable audio at  audible.co.uk/meninaprons. The novel, which British journalist Alex Mattis (Alex is a she) describes as a story “about misguided twentysomethings trying to forge careers against a backdrop of nightmare flatmates, failed romances and bad housekeeping”, does not mention the Electrolux brand but vacuuming is obviously a key plot point. 

Of course, this is really not new. Remember the controversy that broke out five years ago when British author Fay Weldon admitted she was paid to mention an Italian luxury-goods retailer in The Bulgari Connection? And chick lit writers have been brand name-dropping for years. Think The Devil Wears Prada, Gucci Gucci Goo. The only difference is these authors now should demand the big bucks and a plug for their own books on the marketers’ web sites.