Name Dropping

[CharleyH]

I'm writing a story that takes place in LA and my main character is this rich movie director. I'm wondering how other writers and readers feel about the use of brand name products in stories.

Try as I might to be original and describe how people are dressed, what sort of cars they're driving, etc., without saying BMW or Prada, sometimes I'm at a loss. Never would I saturate a story to the point that it looked like an advertisement, but sometimes I think it's okay to use a brand to show a character's taste. What do you think? Anyone have any specific rules they follow?

Bret Easton Ellis does it constantly in 'Glamorama' and it did not bother me. It was part of WHAT the charater was is, and adds. Depends right, but having lived in L.A., I can assure you, it is artifical in persona. What year?

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Except for the song “Bette Davis Eyes” describing somebody as being similar to someone else never works for me. It lessens my belief in them as an individual. (Even their creator couldn’t be bothered to treat them like an individual!)

Products, however, are interchangeable. They are invested with images that their manufacturer has spent millions trying to communicate to potential consumers — your audience. As previously mentioned, brand names can instill connotations about your character that an unbranded description wouldn’t support.

Think of how the make of a your hero’s vehicle will alter your impression of your leading man.

(1) he picked her up in a Mazda RX8 . . .

(2) he picked her up in a Honda Civic . . .

(3) he picked her up in a Jeep Wrangler . . .


You can also use brand products to demonstrate a character’s thwarted aspirations:

Both the lingering scent of faux Clive Christian flagrance and the black marked tiles from the heels of her Sergio Rossi knockoffs told Jake that Celeste had visited his office recently.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Bret Easton Ellis does it constantly in 'Glamorama' and it did not bother me. It was part of WHAT the charater was is, and adds. Depends right, but having lived in L.A., I can assure you, it is artifical in persona. What year?

This story takes place in the now. It's my first 21st century story, hold me.

 

[carsonshepherd]

This story takes place in the now. It's my first 21st century story, hold me.

I will, babe.

And I decided that as long as you use it sparingly, with some description, instead of using a name brand as description it's okay.

"Her Manolo Blanink stilletos were little more than wisps of leather and a gravity-defying heel."

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I will, babe.

And I decided that as long as you use it sparingly, with some description, instead of using a name brand as description it's okay.

"Her Manolo Blanink stilletos were little more than wisps of leather and a gravity-defying heel."

Thank you! As you know, there will be a three week span in the story where everyone is naked save for a sarong or two.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Thank you! As you know, there will be a three week span in the story where everyone is naked save for a sarong or two.

A scrap of batik fabric should be easy to describe

 

[An Awful Cad]

I've lived in LA, That's how people are. The whole place is one big piece of product placement. It makes me sick from my Timberlands to my Porsche shades.

Here's what I love about LA. It's just like Lit, really. You are what you say you are. If you say you're an actor, then you're an actor even if you deliver more pizza than line readings. You're a writer? Sure, can't wait to read your stuff - someday. So you say you're a horse, an elf, an alpaca or a sexy blonde. Works for me. Nice AV, easy to dance to, I give it a nine Dick.

 

[snooper]

WHat's the problem?

It isn't called name dropping - it is called Product Placement and the manufacturer should be paying you to mention their product in a widely read document (well 10k reads is quite usual on here and 100k is not that rare).

 

[Weird Harold]

...but sometimes I think it's okay to use a brand to show a character's taste. What do you think? Anyone have any specific rules they follow?

A lot depends on who is taking notice of a product for me.

If your POV character is someone who would recognise a particular designer's work in a dress or the make and model of an expensive car, then they would think of them by name.

On the other hand, if your POV character is a naive mid-western farm girl or the like, it would seem "unnatural" for her to recognise make and model or a specific designer's work.

The parking valet might obsess over the make, model, and performance of a car but think of an expensive gown as, "fifty cents worth of cloth and several thousand dollars worth of name held in place by hope and willpower."

What the brand names and model numbers actually are -- whether real or fictional -- is less important than who is taking notice of them and their attitude about them.