Do you want ads in your books? How about product placement? Today Entertainment Weekly collected clips of product placement in the soap opera, Days of Our Lives. The Cheerios placement embedded above makes us laugh, but the advertising dollars also helped keep the show on the air.
Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal touched off a publishing debate the prospect of advertisements in digital books: “With e-reader prices dropping like a stone and major tech players jumping into the book retail business, what room is left for publishers’ profits? The surprising answer: ads. They’re coming soon to a book near you.”
Could you handle strategic product placement in your favorite book or eBook? Movable Type Literary Group founder Jason Ashlock started the Twitter hashtag #adsinbooks back in August. It might be time to revisit the debate. (Via Edward Champion)
UPDATE: Reader Ted Weinstein reminds us that Fay Weldon made headlines back in 2001 for product placement in her novel, The Bulgari Connection. In addition, reader Alex Irvine shared another product placement story from 2008.