Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

fictomercial (FIK.toh.mur.shul) n.

A work of fiction in which a company pays the writer to incorporate
the company's products into the story.



Example Citation
---------------------------------
British writer Fay Weldon opened up a whole new financial can of
worms with her novel "The Bulgari Connection," sponsored by the
Italian jewelry company Bulgari in return for a few mentions in the
plot. Some critics wailed about the new field of "fictomercial," but
most accepted the book for what it is: a harmless little experiment
by a talented novelist.
--"Whew! What a year," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
December 15, 2001

See Also
---------------------------------
ad creep:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/adcreep.asp

advergame:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/advergame.asp

advermation:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/advermation.asp

advertecture:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/advertecture.asp

advertorial:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/advertorial.asp

magalogue:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/magalogue.asp

Backgrounder
---------------------------------
In 1997, the late Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler caused a minor
stir when he published an excerpt from his book _Barney's Version_ in
a magazine. The story was "Presented By Absolut Vodka" and the final
page of text was printed around the shape of an Absolut vodka bottle,
with "Absolut Mordecai" printed in bold letters at the bottom of the page.
(See the image at http://www.wordspy.com/words/fictomercial.asp.)
The Swedish vodka maker has also ran ads featuring short stories
commissioned from the likes of Douglas Coupland and John Irving,
and has even sponsored short story contests in which the Absolut name
must appear.

Then there was the source of today's word: writer Fay Weldon's novel
_The Bulgari Connection_, commissioned by the jeweler Bulgari, which
caused much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth last year.
Interestingly, more than one reviewer noted at the time that Ms.
Weldon appeared to have pulled a fast one on Bulgari, since the
character who is most into the Bulgari scene is also the least
likable.

It was inevitable, I guess, but a couple of ex-advertising types have
taken the idea of the fictomercial to its head-shakingly logical
conclusion. They've started writing "bought books": novels designed
from the outline up to be vehicles for a company's marketing
message.

Earliest Citation
---------------------------------
Are there worse things that can happen to the novel? The beleaguered
form has been declared dead on numerous occasions, by writers ranging
from Gore Vidal to V. S. Naipaul; it has been chilled by the looming
shadow of hypertext fiction; and it has long since ceded its cultural
importance to the dominant contemporary storytelling form, the
movies. And now, just when it seemed that the least you could claim
for the fading redundancy that is "literary fiction" was its artistic
integrity, Fay Weldon has gone and dragged advertising into its
pages.

Weldon anticipated the opprobrium some would heap on her for the deal
she struck with Bulgari, the Italian jewelry company; it paid her an
undisclosed sum in exchange for Weldon's placing references to their
products in her new book. But Weldon, who in previous novels has been
fearless in taking on targets like sexism, feminism, therapy and
cloning, has been typically bold and unapologetic in pioneering this
hybrid form of fictomercial. And her past work as an advertising
copywriter -- she reportedly came up with the British slogan "Go to
Work on an Egg" at about the same time her friend Salman Rushdie, who
also worked in advertising, is said to have dreamed up
"delectabubble" to describe an airy kind of chocolate bar -- has
surely stood her in good stead in "The Bulgari Connection."
--Sylvia Brownrigg, "Your Ad Here," The New York Times, November 4,
2001

Words About Words
---------------------------------
English, like all languages, is a sign of the times -- present or
past. It is also a record of the invention and imagination, the
poetic or playful fantasies, the sly or sardonic humor, of the known
and unknown people who have shaped it.
--Robert Claiborne, American editor and writer, _Our Marvelous Native
Tongue_, 1983

Miscellanea
---------------------------------
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