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Do you use tissues or K______? Are you drinking a soda or pop or P____ or a C___?
What is it called when you do a search on the Internet? G_____ it? Nope, under their term of use this is a phrase they do not want used as they company, product, and brand is more than a search engine.
Oh, and watch how you use a certain fast food restaurant. They tend to be very protective of their product usage and name. A high price tag.
Never ever refer to any car name as a lemon, keep all lemons as far away from any sentence using a car type as possible.
Oh, what was that social media thing that was out before F______k? Your place? Right, I know the name, I’ve tweaked it for this posting.
Imagine you’re a YA author and your characters spend all their time on Your place. Or your detective spots a vital clue on Your place and solves the murder case. Now fast forward so many years and your carefully crafted timeless piece is now dated and feels stale to your current market. Why? What happened?
You used something that was current for your time, for you, but now it’s lost to any new audience. You’ve both dated your material and characters as well as risked legal letters demanding the removal of someone’s product, copyrighted brand.
But, what about all those product placements in movies and television? Well, in television, I can’t really remember that many brand name products. In movies…those placements are paid for, mega paid for. And from my understanding are carefully used so their brand name, logo, colours are front and center.
My daughter bought a new series of books, which I attempted to read. I mean that exactly…I attempted to read. The first three pages had seventeen product name uses to describe the characters. I had no clue what the characters looked like cause all I knew was product names.
Product brand names tell your reader NOTHING about your character or setting. Oh, I know, I’ve heard the reasonings…but they tell you the expensive tastes of my character. Only if your reader knows the products.
How then do you bring in the real world? Did you recognize what social media I was referring back to with Your place? Then right there is how you do it…make your own name. Or for that other media, let’s see if I can explain it in so many characters…get it?
Okay, you’ve heard my opinion and experience with these types of brandings. What if your character loves a certain actor or actress. That so-n-so from that show is their dream gal and no other female can match to this image.
Fine. However, your reader can’t stand that actress and has the opposite reaction to what you intend. Readers, for the most part, know to read beyond what they like and to stay with the character. Do you want to risk pulling a reader out of the story for even an instant?
With your writing you are showing your story to the reader. Your reader is painting the picture in their head…and it ain’t matching your picture. The story is, the picture isn’t. That’s why reading is so much fun and why us readers, read. We get to escape into a story we paint in our minds with YOUR words.
The more you throw in product names, the more you’re interrupting that process because then we see someone else’s words, image, brand and we lose you.
Yes, I could go on about other brand usages and yes there is the parody aspect of writing. Is your YA or mystery (example above) a parody? Will all your audience ‘get’ the inside joke or tag? Will it pull them from the story instead?
You’re a writer…use your imagine. It will always be stronger and better than another’s.
Thanks for the post. If you're a YA author mentioning MySpace, I'd hope you're at least writing historical fiction- that place is dead. 🙂
You and I have had this argument before, as I recall. 🙂
I agree with the argument about dating your material, but terms like 'cell phone' or referring to a car running out of gasoline do that anyway. Look at works by Jules Verne and HG Wells – even the language they use dates them. It's going to happen.
But, movies, television shows, companies, and products are facts of the modern world. And, legally, no one can copyright a fact. "Bob drives a Lexus" is perfectly legal. I'd also argue that, used properly, specific products can help define a character. After all, the Walther PPK and Aston Martin are indelibly associated with James Bond courtesy of Ian Fleming's books.
The problems start when you don't stick to the facts…
There's a difference between saying "I googled the answer" and "I did a quick search on Google and found what I needed." The Google search engine is a fact. Google can't stop you from using it. "Google' is not a verb, though, so you can't use 'googling' as a generic term for looking stuff up.
You can't say bad things about products. "Bob hated his Lexus; it had been a piece of crap from day one" is disparaging and could be actionable if the lawyers are in the mood. You don;t want to do that.
I have a scene in "Fire-Breathing Girlfriend" where David deliberately rolls his Jeep Cherokee. Is that disparaging Jeeps? No. The crash is David's fault. I make it plain he liked the car and hated to crash it.
I agree with the point that creating your own products and such makes your world more immersive, but sometimes, it's not appropriate. Raising a glass of The Glenlivet. Aiming a Smith & Wesson .357 at an cowering punk. 'Borrowing' your best friend's dad's Ferrari.
Some books depend on pop culture references to succeed. Michael R. Underwood's 'Geekomancy' books. Max Barry's 'Jennifer Government' (he has the protection of having written a parody, so he gets away with a **LOT** of stuff, but that's another issue). Ernest Cline's 'Ready Player One' could not be written without pop culture references.
This a great blog entry on the subject. I am not a lawyer, but this guy is:
http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2010/12/can-i-mention-brand-name-products-in-my.html
Chris, I agree that it's better (and safer) to use your own companies and such. But, if your character wants to grab some Nachos and watch "Back to the Future" before tonight's D&D game, legally, she or she can.
Of course, you still have to get it past your editor. 😉
Hi, Chris. thanks for dropping by. See, that's the point exactly…using what we know can end up making our stories dinos before their time 😉
LOL…Hey, Bryan. Glad you dropped by. Can't argue with ya here. It's that fine line and how a writer uses it…including how much.
Thanks for the compliment. This topic could go on for pages as there are so many angles to it 🙂
As for the one editor of yours…uhm, yeah no comment 😉 LOL
While using brand names gives your readers a sense of identification, they also date your work. For example, no one today except those of us who are seriously adult remember why Jordache jeans were so cool. With E-books outlasting the lives of their authors, the use of brand names doesn't seem wise…unless you're talking Gucci or one of the other old line companies that will outlast our books!
Hi, Robbi. Thanks for coming by. Ahh, those Jordache commercials. Now to take the devil's advocate side (as my dad would LOL) if your piece is set in a time or there's a flashback or time travel, then a brand name might be of help…always though in moderation, how it's used, and if really needed. One for the jeans…oh my did we really wear our hair that HIGH 😉
Thanks for the reminder and the information. I don't use brand name. Some editor advised me not to. 🙂 Looking back at my older books I have to laugh. They talk on the phone hanging on the wall. Today's generation won't have a clue. Words to remembr.
Hi, Beverly…glad you came by. Now who would that editor be 😉 I keep thinking about my old Nancy Drew books…imagine how fast those would be solved now with the Internet and cell phones. Today's generation laugh when we say we had to manually change the TV channel LOL