I think I'd stop reading if I ever came across it.
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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It was one of the more startling aspects of the original James Bond books. He didn't just use an 'expensive cigarette lighter' and drive a 'sporty car', he used a Ronson and had a Bentley with an Amherst Villiers supercharger.
You'll also find mention of Gordon's gin, Citroën, Morland cigarettes, and Taittinger champagne.
This was certainly not the norm for literature in 1953, but was a conscious choice by Fleming to root Bond in reality, albeit a rather upscale one.
Exactly and that worked. And it was clear why the man took to those brands; his life could end the next moment and violently. He wanted to have his taste of the best he could get. It fitted the character. Regardless those references, the reader could easily forget them as they did not marked the flow of the story.
In the book I mention I'm picking up more of these references has the text advances and most are purely unnecessary which was what made them originally so noticeable. The brands are mentioned as if they are pivotal to a scene or the unrolling of the story
It was also because Fleming was paid by the companies to use their product names.
That's a fact? Very interesting. But at least I'll concede the man did it with a degree of finesse.
One example is that Bond drove a Bentley in the first six novels and then Fleming changed it to an Aston Martin for Goldfinger. The most famous is Bond smoking Players Cigarettes where there was advertising inserted into copies of Thunderball. The movies did much more to include product placement, though.
I remember reading someone positing that Bentley positioning them more in the high luxury segment was part of the motivation of Bond turning to Aston Martin, as the brand was more concerned with sports and racing, closer to the fast and dangerous life style of the character.
That cigarette brand never caught my eye. What did caught my eye was reference to turkish tobacco and a description of how much stronger it was.
Ah yeah, but it was an old prewar Bentley.
Thinking about Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 novels, namedropping cars and booze brands is a thing. It establishes Bond as a man who appreciates luxury as well as he handles danger. Still lacks emotional depth or backstory, at least in what I remember of "Dr. No". Did Nabakov namedrop Humbert's car make/model in "Lolita"? I don't remember but I feel like it wouldn't have been a red flag there. There are probably a good handful of brnd-naming examples in Stephen King's work.
So it's a debatable choice but there are legit situations where a brand name hints at character, or serves to anchor the story in verité.
Another example is the character named Ford Prefect in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where wildly improbable coincidences are integral to the overall absurdism.
Fleming was paid for product placement in the Bond novels in the way that tv and movies do now.
You said this elsewhere, and when asked for proof, you dodged it.
Are you making this up, or is there something to substantiate your claim beyond "I said so"?
Considering the fact he keeps repeating this without evidence and Google provides zero information on it, I think it's safe to assume he's full of shit
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There are probably a good handful of brnd-naming examples in Stephen King's work.
That one Dark Tower book (book 5?) has some odd Harry Potter references
Thanks, I hate this.
I sincerely apologize but you're welcome.
I don't feel that simply mentioning a product name is necessarily product placement. That said, this example is hilarious. It sounds like AI writing having trained on podcast sponsorships.
I think when the 'product' is something relevant ro the plot somehow it's best to just rename it, because otherwise it's gonna sound like an ad. But a character ordering a Coke at a restaurant or whatever is fine IMO.
Could you quote the passage go get an idea if it reads really like an as?
She wasn’t as good a cook as he was and, not full of confidence that she would be able to pull it off, she had bought a meal box from Hello Fresh after seeing one of their ads on Facebook. She had a turkey, all the vegetables and sauces, and a booklet of instructions that even she could follow. She had selected her Christmas playlist on Spotify and had found, to her surprise, that she had enjoyed herself more than she had expected.
And now I notice I even overlooked Facebook.
This passage makes me wonder if the book is AI slop
I wouldn't put it above it.
The author has been active since 2011 and is phenomenally productive.
Old school pulpers were pretty capable of sitting down and putting out a story in a week or less. Being self published, autocorrect can pass for all the editing and reviewing a work from this author gets. Yet there are only so many hours a person can write.
"not full of confidence" Who writes like that? "Lacking" is a word that exists.
Apparently, this writer.
Also in three sentences they used "she had" 5 times. This sample reads as if it never even passed an editor.
Edit: actually there is another "she had" in the first sentence. Crazy.
Regardless this disastrous opening, the story actually flows well and is quite nice to follow. Overlooking the endless brand dropping throughout the text.
"He passed the Aldi on his way to"[...] "He filled a large Ikea bag with clothes"[...] etc.
I don't know when this book was first published, but is there a chance that it was at least partially written by or with "help" from AI?
March, 2020
At least that is the date I'm being able to find.
Would I put that option out of the table? No. But it seems this author is highly productive and self published, churning out three or four books a year, since 2011. Either the guy writes at a tremendous pace or he has a host of shadow writers.
It may just be this is an old school pulper capable of sitting down and in three or four days having a story written. No review or editting beyond autocorret.
That makes sense. Maybe they just throw out all these references to brands as a way to help them fulfill some quota with the length of their books?
For a self published author? No editor demanding for it.
The book has 4 parts and 96 chapters. The author got at it with gusto, it seems.
I wasn't thinking like an editor or publisher quota, but that maybe there was some threshold that they were trying to meet either for the site where they self-published or for themselves. But yeah, I guess they just write like that. :)
I ''ve seen it a lot in modern day thrillers. I doubt most of it is paid, rather an effort to make the narrative more grounded.
It's a tool but there are way to use it without it sounding artificial.
Yes, it is cringy usually.
Write what you know 🤷♂️ the dude like grocery delivery and instant coffee
Write what you know.
I was expecting that would be mentioned. But we can write on what we know without getting... unelegant.
There used to be ads for soup in Discworld novels translated to German.
I'd put my editor through the meat grinder if someone took liberties with my text. But that is curious.
"An Uber, an Uber! My kingdom for an Uber! "
Catching that in the wild would be glorious and disheartning.
Stieg Larsson did this massively in his Millennium trilogy with brands like IKEA and Apple 20 years ago if I remember correctly.
Really? I have to check it. Interesting read?
The product placement or the whole books?
The Books are really great. (Also it depicts rather real hacking*, instead of the usual hacking tropes.)
*It's not all about hacking. Themes are among other things are: corruption, violence/murder, femicide and journalism (and more, but I already spoiled too much).
That was a poor question on my part, wasn't it?
Seems interesting. I'll try to take a look at it.
Nah, sometimes I'm just pretty dumb ;)
Have fun with it!
It's the girl with the dragon tattoo series fyi
Really?! That series seemed to fizzle out in my country. I remember seeing the titles on the shelves but never heard anyone talk about it.
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