Inside story: product placement and adolescent consumer identity in young adult fiction

Abstract

Stewart and Weisman, 2006), entered a marketing agreement with Proctor & Gamble, manufacturers of Covergirl cosmetics. References to shades of Lipslicks lip gloss and Covergirl mascara were introduced into the novel. In return, Cathy's Book was publicized on Proctor & Gamble's Beinggirl website. The marketing agreement was particularly controversial in the United States where, it is claimed, more children than anywhere else in the world 'believe that their clothes and brands describe who they are and define their social status' (Schor, 2004: 13). This state of affairs, which arguably extends beyond the borders of the heartland of consumer capitalism, has been widely attributed to the extensive advertising exposure to which the youth of today are subject. As the first publicized instance of formally arranged product placement in a young adult novel, Cathy's Book marks a watershed in the commodification of children's literature and its appropriation as an instrument of consumer capitalism.Much has been written about the commodification of child and youth culture, in particular how screen texts are used to socialize the young into consumer society. Disney led the way, using its films and characters as part of its broader marketing strategy from the 1930s. The sale of licensed merchandise provided publicity for the films, and the films advertised the product, combining two mutually reinforcing 'registers of consumption ' (de Cordova, 1994). Today, screen texts are routinely used to promote a range of disparate brand-name items via cross-selling and product placement. Indeed, it has contributed to the hybridization of entertainment and advertising Bullen, 2001, 2008), that is, the integration of advertising into film and television texts (and vice versa). The conflation of the pleasures of entertainment with the pleasures of consumption is a key mechanism in the enculturation of the young into consumer society.Although children's and young adult fiction has generally avoided being actively or extensively co-opted into the agendas of consumer capitalism in this way, informal product placement in novels for this audience is actually not uncommon. However, the implications for the socialization of readers into consumer culture have not been subjected to the scrutiny that screen texts receive. Taking an emerging subgenre of young adult fiction distinguished by the conspicuous consumption of its affluent teenage

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