Product Placement

Jose_Rick

Experienced
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Posts
45
I have an upcoming chapter in a story in which I've included real book titles I've enjoyed reading, and real places (a store and a restaurant) I've enjoyed visiting. These places and things play a prominent but not important role in the story. They could probably be edited out to become fictional or just unnamed, but I'd prefer to keep them if possible.

Has anyone done this? Are there any LIT policies about it I should be aware of? Any legalities I should be aware of?

I'm interested in any thoughts you might have on the matter.
 
Den

I'm new at this story telling. All of our stories are true but so far most names and places have been changed.
It's possible if you become rich and famous you could get royalties every time you mention a title or place.............. Or you may get sued!:confused:

I called a motel in a few stories "The Shady Pines". Then last year we actually stayed at a place called "The Shady Pines." Too far away for our stories but it seems as though every name has been used for everything.
 
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I don't think it's a big deal. I often do mention specific and real brand names etc.

However it can also be fun and add to the writing if you spoof them up. Then you are also on safer legal grounds.

Why not have Veuve Clitot champagne with your Balluga caviar? Wear La PlasticPearla lingerie.

I did once put a disclaimer into a story saying all characters were fictional. It was because I had a BDSM gay werewolf with piercings who was in a position of power and influence in government, and I just knew someone would pop up in the civil service and claim I'd based it on him if I didn't do that :D.

(He is a fictional character, but I bet I would find him if I went down there and hung about in the Corridors of Power for a day or two.)
 
The vast majority of my stories are set in real places. I explicitly name many; others I describe closely enough that readers familiar with the locale will recognize it. Visitor's to San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square should be able to identify the restaurant at the start of That's My Girl. I think I make The City an integral player in the tale. I do a fair bit of product placement in that story, with real makers' and brand-names. Some of that *is* essential to the tale.

I recall previous discussions of legalities. Overall, you are most unlikely to be sued for your postings on a free pr0n site. At very worst you *might* (rare chance) get a letter demanding removal of slanderous material. I would not write of a real (named) chef at a real (named) restaurant deliberately poisoning customers -- unless it really happened!
 
I wouldn't say I do this all the time, but I certainly have done it. In my story "Rhythm and the Blue Line," set in the Washington, DC area, I use real places -- restaurants, clubs, places like the Smithsonian Mall and other landmarks. I did the same in "Numbers Game" (currently not up), also set in DC.
 
I don't think there are any legal issues with mentioning real places and things in a work of fiction. In my stuff set in real places (mostly New York and southern Connecticut), people often eat in real restaurants, go to actual universities, live in apartment buildings that exist, and read real books. Once they even used a well-known brand of lubricant for anal sex.

When I set stories in fictional places I make up a lot more stuff.
 
I use real places and book and music titles frequently, mixing them in with made-up ones, so the reader sees some reality grounding but can't really tell what is real and what has been added.

In mystery novels I wrote on and about a Mediterranean island some years ago, I put a boutique hotel in an old multistory stone mill that does have a restaurant at the top of it. People started calling the restaurant to find out how they could make reservations in the hotel.

And, no, there are no legal restrictions in including real places and work titles in your fiction.
 
I often use real people's names, but usually with a different first or last name, and the characters aren't based on those people. When I do write about a character that resembles a real person I know or have known, I use a made up name, or one not associated with that person.

For instance, IF at some point in my life I had a group of friends/acquaintances called: John Smith, Joe Jones, and Amanda Richie. I would name my characters: John Richie, Joe Smith, and Amanda Jones. And if I write a character that resembles the real John Richie, I would use a made up name, or the name of someone from a different era of my life. (I've moved many times, and lived in several countries, both as a child and adult.)

As for place names, I have used made up and real cities and towns and real and made up streets. I have used the names of restaurants and bars that are real.

I read a story here that used the real name of a town I used to live in, and two business names. However he used the names of two business as the names of different businesses. One was the name of a grocery store that he used as a restaurant. Can't remember the other. I contacted him and told him I used to live there and was thrilled he wrote about the place (a very small town) and wondered if he lived there when I did. He never answered. I hope I didn't scare him. Wish I had saved the name of the story.

And there are coincidences in real life. I recently watched an old move from the sixties, one of the characters had my father's name, and drove the same car that he did.
 
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Reading through these, I'm thinking I'll probably leave them in. I feel like it grounds the story a little more. Like Hypoxia's Ghirardelli Square, anyone who's been to this particular city would recognize these local landmarks.

Thanks everyone for all your replies. I appreciate you taking the time.
 
I should mention that I didn't identify that San Francisco restaurant, only its location. It's fairly famous for some of the waterfront's best vistas. But since I cast restaurant staff (based on reality) as major players in the story, I thought it prudent to omit the name.

Similarly, when I identify actual establishments, I made sure to invent their staffs. But I think Groucho Marx or maybe WC Fields said that if you invent a shyster lawyer named Erasmus Z. Quackenbush, a slimey shyster named Erasmus Z. Quackenbush will jump out and sue your ass. Sometimes our inventions are too close to reality. Damn.
 
I've used real placed and products in my stories. What the hell, why not. It's not like anyone is going to complain about me including a Big Mac in the story and sue me. McDonalds has enough to worry about without trying to get something I don't have from me.
 
I've used real placed and products in my stories. What the hell, why not. It's not like anyone is going to complain about me including a Big Mac in the story and sue me. McDonalds has enough to worry about without trying to get something I don't have from me.
Always consider the target. (Or a Target store.) It's a matter of scale. McFood outlets and Wally's and Apple and Toyota and Samsung are big, fat, easy prey, and they're not likely to bother with LIT. Even Mr Tromp hasn't bitched about the negative attention he gets here (forum -- only a couple stories include him so far.) Even slanderous mainstream literature rarely draws the attention of mega-corporations. Stuff I've seen about WalMart and Safeway... Anyway, we just don't matter. Let's stifle our delusions of adequacy. Beware random tentacles slithering around the petfood aisle.

The wrapped Big Mac seemed to vibrate in my hand. I peeled back the paper, lifted the bun edge, and saw BUGS! CRAWLING BUGS! "Don't worry," my friend said. "They're love bugs."
 
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I should mention that I didn't identify that San Francisco restaurant, only its location. It's fairly famous for some of the waterfront's best vistas. But since I cast restaurant staff (based on reality) as major players in the story, I thought it prudent to omit the name.

Fortunately, that wasn't an issue. My characters didn't interact with anyone in these places. One was simply a well known landmark. In the other, the products were mentioned but no people.

I can't imagine using the real name of a person from a real place unless I was writing in celebrities or comparing some character to a celeb.
 
Always consider the target. (Or a Target store.) It's a matter of scale. McFood outlets and Wally's and Apple and Toyota and Samsung are big, fat, easy prey, and they're not likely to bother with LIT.

That's why I asked, more or less.

Consider this:

We stopped at McDonalds. The girl behind the counter was short, cute, and busty. Just my type. Plus, I was a sucker for green eyes. I looked at my girlfriend. She didn't say a word, but her face told me I had been caught ogling the cashier.

I'm sure there are short, cute, busty, green eyed girls working at McDonalds, but this could still be anyone, anywhere.

Now this:

After the Gophers lost we strolled down to Annie's Parlour. Our waitress was short, cute, and busty....

That can only be one place on earth, and anyone who knows the Twin Cities knows where it is. If there's a short, cute, busty green eyed girl waiting tables there, she's probably the only one.

I would hate to have the second example accidentally be a real person.
 
After the Gophers lost we strolled down to Annie's Parlour. Our waitress was short, cute, and busty....
That can only be one place on earth, and anyone who knows the Twin Cities knows where it is. If there's a short, cute, busty green eyed girl waiting tables there, she's probably the only one.

I would hate to have the second example accidentally be a real person.
My Sellwood (Portland OR) stories include actual brewpubs and home-delivery eateries with named staff; I hope nobody there matches my descriptions and names but I won't fret overmuch if they do.

I do not frequent clubs and bars so when I write scenes in such I can make up whatever people and shit I want with no worries. I'll drive by a local spot and view the smokers huddled outside, the chopped bikes and rusty pickups and sun-faded Fords, and flesh them out however I wish. They only hint at reality.
 
I use well-known businesses and places to short cut understandings. If I put a character shopping in either a Wal-Mart or Nieman and Marcus, for instance, it short cuts pinning down a lot about that character. When I have a guy walking into a real gay bar in NYC's Chelsea--or have him cruising in Key West--it shows him out to many in my target audience for GM stories without my having to flatly say he's gay and a cruiser.
 
I dated a romance writer lady, some years back. If she put Penelope Possumiips as a nanny for Paul Dark And Handsome at 123 Romance Lane, the unfortunates who actually lived at 123 Romance Lane would have waves of idiots ringing the bell at 123 Romance Lane, with threats of lawsuit to follow.
(The bitch was insane and her husband was even worse.)
 
Quite cute. A sequel could include magickal animals talking about the vehicles, weapons, and utensils named after them. Meanwhile, do angels actually feed on cake?

Thank you. It's not very highly rated, but it was fun to write.
 
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