If you get this comment on your ms, it’s because you’ve included some detail that doesn’t seem appropriate. If you keep Chekhov’s Gun in mind, this shouldn’t be a worry, but too often we’ve seen authors who don’t even realise they are doing it. We hope to help those authors, as well.
There are two kinds of product placement: Intentional and Unintentional. The biggest concern is with Intentional…but the slipperiest is Unintentional, so we’ll tackle that first.
Unintentional Product Placement
Too often, we’ve seen the use of informal or slang language inadvertently drop in product names. Over all, there aren’t any real problems with casual speech, especially if your characters are talking, but in some cases, it can cause careless name dropping.
It tends to happen when trademarked names get used in the generic, such as ‘Kleenex®’ instead of ‘tissue’, or ‘Clorox®’ instead of ‘bleach’. If you’re uncertain whether a name you’ve been using for years is in fact a trademarked name, just do a web search and see how it’s used. If you really want to dig into it, check out the US Patent and Trademark Office <uspto.gov> to see how the term is properly used.
In fact, this problem is so wide spread that most folks don’t even realise they are doing it. One time, we had an author who, because of where he was brought up, thought that all refrigerators were named Frigidaire, so every time he went to put the milk away, he’d say, “I’ll go put it in the Frigidaire”, even if it was actually a GE, Whirlpool, Samsung, Kenmore, Maytag or some other brand. Apparently his entire family…back a dozen generations…always called the ice box a Frigidaire, and he didn’t see anything wrong with that.
In casual conversation…in real life…that level of inaccuracy isn’t really an issue (though it may annoy some), but when you want to share your words with the world, you should be more precise and less colloquial. Folks from other parts of the world may not know that Frigidaire is a popular brand of refrigerator…because where they are from, it isn’t.
Intentional Product Placement
The real concern is when authors feel they just have to specify an exact brand or model of some object in their story, probably because they have a specific one in mind or they have one right at hand to look at. If some particular detail is significant in your story, you will include that…but just that, not the particular brand name. In the examples below, you’ll see that mentioning someone speed shifting by smashing the accelerator to the floor in the midst of a shift would be important, but not the name on the outside of the car. Whether someone has to stop to reload a cylinder or just slams in a new magazine would have a definite effect on the action, but the make of the gun would not.
Just remember…the operation of an item is important, not what’s printed on it. You’ll find that the precise make or model of an item doesn’t really add much to the story…as long as you include how the characters have to deal with it. Try to picture the item in the hands of your characters…what do they do with it? How do they make it work? What special features do they have to deal with? That’s what you need to include.
Examples
Here’s a table listing various events that could be happening in your story. We consider how unimportant brand might be…but how important a piece of telling detail might be.
| If… | It doesn’t matter if it’s a… | But it does make a difference if it’s a… |
|---|---|---|
| The good guy is escaping in a car |
Ford or Chevy |
Manual or Automatic |
| The girlfriend is putting on makeup |
Revlon or Sephora |
Old Lady Burgundy or Hot Young Thing Scarlet |
| The bad guy is shooting people |
Colt or Remington |
Revolver or automatic pistol |
| The mother is going shopping |
Macy’s or Target |
Mall full of people or an almost abandoned strip mall in the bad part of town |
| The chef is slicing tomatoes |
Victorinox or Kiwi |
Fillet or cleaver |
| The mentor is checking his watch |
Rolex or Seiko |
Digital or analogue |
| The brother is making a sandwich |
Wonder bread or Killer Dave’s |
Whole wheat or sourdough |
| The maid is vacuuming |
Hoover or Kirby |
Manual or electric |
| The son is playing a video game |
Samsung or Nintendo |
Phone or console |
As you can see, the relevant detail may need to be mentioned…or at least alluded to. Stopping to think about that detail may give you an opportunity to include even more descriptions that help the reader see the scene.
Sponsors
On the other hand, if you manage to get Victorinox or Macy’s or Colt to fund your writing, then of course, you need to include their name in your story. If you want, you can even have the good guy use a Colt while the bad guy uses a Remington. That would be a plus for the one and a minus for the other, a technique that’s been used before. In fact, Apple doesn’t mind if their products are visible on the big screen…as long as none of the bad guys have any!