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Re: [GWL]: Paid mentions of products

Carole,
  I like the way you seamlessly worked in the ad for your book in the section of the email on the European peasant hoes. It worked for me! I'm about to go to www.chelseagreen.com and have a look. Sounds interesting and there certainly is a need for a good, clear book on breeding your own vegetables.
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Deppe <caroldeppe@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri,  7 Sep 2001 00:07:32 +0000
To: Gardenwriters@topica.com
Subject: [GWL]: Paid mentions of products


> In my view, all paid advertising should be listed as paid advertising.  
> Magazines often have long informative sections that are like articles, 
> but are controlled by and paid for by an advertiser.  They are called 
> advertorials, and that is fine; there is a line at the top that declares 
> the piece as advertising.  Many magazines, however, have long glowing 
> articles that feature certain products or companies, and seem very like 
> advertorials; but they are presented as articles.  I don't have to see 
> more than one or two of these in a magazine before serious suspicions 
> arise, and I lose whatever trust I might have had in the magazine.  
> 
> Even with novels, I think there is a huge difference between mentioning 
> a brand with and without pay.  First, if you mention or focus on a brand 
> without pay, it is probably because it fits in with your character and 
> helps portray her, or for other idiosynchratic reasons of your own, a 
> matter of your own self-expression.  You will probably portray the 
> product accurately to the best of your ability, just as you portray all 
> basic facts as truthfully as possible.  If you have inaccuracy and 
> mistakes in the little stuff, your overall fiction looses credibility 
> and doesn't work.  
> 
> When you accept money for inserting a mention of a product and brand, 
> the company paying the money is paying for the product's being presented 
> in a certain way.  They call the shots.  They will probably push for the 
> mentions to be major and central, and more elaborate and positive than 
> anything you would have done spontaneously.  If the money involved is 
> trivial, it's not likely to be worth messing with.  If it is major, you 
> will have to wonder to what extent you have sold out your readers.  
> Would this character really have spent all her time fantisizing about a 
> certain brand of jewelry?  Could the book have been better if it wasn't 
> set in a jewelry store?  Is this actually the signal jewelry brand 
> readers ought to know about?  And if so, is that more or less important 
> than whatever else you were trying to say before and after the company 
> got involved?
> 
> I have on more than one occasion tried a product because a certain 
> fictional character liked it.  I did so, because I "respected" the 
> fictional character and the author, and figured if this character, who 
> is a gourmet, liked that particular brand of tea or scotch or whatever, 
> then I might too.  Also, when one is a fan of a particular character it 
> adds to the overall experience to try the product too.  I've found one 
> brand of tea and one scotch I liked that way.  Yet, I am someone who 
> hardly ever responds to ordinary advertising.    
> 
> I don't think there is anything necessarily immoral in taking money for 
> product mentions, but I do consider this paid advertising, and as a 
> reader, I would prefer to see all advertising labeled as such.  (And the 
> same applies, I feel, to movies.  I think paid product placements should 
> be listed openly as advertisements.)
> 
> When we're writing garden information, I think it is even more important 
> to separate ads and info than with fiction.  Furthermore, mentions and 
> endorsements merge.  In my plant breeding book, for example, I have an 
> episode in the chapter "Conversations with a Squash" in which I head for 
> the field with my big peasant hoe over my shoulder.  I think readers who 
> trust me understand that I genuinely do use such a hoe, and further, 
> that I think this hoe is something they might like to know about.  In 
> fact, I think such huge peasant hoes are incredibly useful tools 
> compared to the ordinary American hoes, but I have never seen them 
> anywhere except mail order.  I read somewhere that this tool is the most 
> common hand tool used by peasants everywhere.  Yet few Americans have 
> ever even seen one.  I didn't say any of that in the chapter; I just 
> mentioned the hoe.  I don't think I could mention a company or tool or 
> type of tool in my nonfiction gardening work without it constituting 
> somewhat of an endorsement unless I included a specific disclaimer.  
> 
> One often sees garden writers mentioning a tool or brand and also giving 
> a disclaimer.  "I had it lying around."  "I got it at a garage sale for 
> free."  "I don't know whether it is the best whatever, but someone gave 
> me one."  These writers realize that a specific mention in the absence 
> of other information will tend to be viewed as an endorsement in the 
> garden writing game.
> 
> Carol Deppe
> Author of BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES:  THE GARDENER'S AND 
> FARMER'S GUIDE TO PLANT BREEDING AND SEED SAVING (Chelsea Green, Dec. 
> 2000)  (See table of contents, excerpts, & reviews at 
> www.chelseagreen.com.)  
> 
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