Earlier today I was cleaning my car and remembering how upset I was when I got it. It's a good car, but it wasn't the car I wanted. I wanted a Volvo and my parents had bought me a Toyota. Then I thought about why I wanted a Volvo...and honestly it wasn't because of design or function. It was because Edward Cullen drove one in the Twilight series. I instantly felt like I fell into the pool of crazy Twi-hards. Did I really want a car just because a fictional vampire dream man drove one?
I thought I was reading a series for a cool story and a better past-time than watching TV but I was actually being exposed to product placement. His Volvo was constantly mentioned and made to sound like it was the cool and sophisticated car to drive. The gorgeous fashionista sister drove a BMW and Emmett, the rugged outdoor type drove a Jeep. While the author could have described the cars without naming the brands or even left the cars out (leaving them out would not have affected the story at all), she mentioned them many times. And it worked. This worries me. Where can we be safe from advertising? Is this constant flow of information some way of brainwashing people slowly? And why are brands so important to us?
I looked through some other books I liked to read when I was a bit younger. I came across The Clique series. They mentioned Seven jeans and Keds plenty of times. I had been exposed to this stuff for years. Here I was thinking that the media didn't affect me much and I had actually been fed ads by some of my favorite books. Now I know why I find it so refreshing to read a book like The Sound and The Fury, no ads! Just like I can skip commercials on TV because of my DVR, I wish I could do that with books. It cheapens the content. But how can I know that a book I pick up will be free from this?
What do you think of brands being placed in teen books?
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