NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin and Jonathan Rowe (503) 235-8012
For Immediate Release: June 12th, 2006

Commercial Alert Asks Book Review Editors Not to Review New Teen “Book” w/ Product Placement

The New York Times reported today that a new “book” for teens, titled “Cathy’s Book,” will contain product placements for Procter & Gamble’s Cover Girl products.

In response, Commercial Alert sent emails today to 305 book review editors, asking them not to review the “book” because it is really an advertisement.  The email follows.

Dear book review editor:

You may have heard that Running Press is publishing a new written work for teens titled “Cathy’s Book. ” This “book” is actually part of a marketing campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Cover Girl line.  The book contains a prominent mention of a Cover Girl product, and the corporation will market it on this basis.

According to the New York Times, a passage in “Cathy’s Book” refers to “a killer coat of Lipslicks,” which is a line of Cover Girl Lip Gloss.  In the galley version, the reference was to a “killer coat of Clinique #11 ‘Black Violet’ lipstick.” But the product was changed in accordance with the marketing agreement with P&G.

It is not unknown for works of fiction to advance political and other agendas, but this crosses a line.  “Cathy’s Book” is in the form of a novel.  But in reality it is an adjunct of a corporate marketing campaign aimed at impressionable teenagers.  Its contents have been altered to that end.

Will you treat this book as a novel to be reviewed, or as an advertisement, which is suitable for discussion in the business pages?

We strongly urge you to choose the latter.  Something large is at stake here.  There is a difference between a novel and an ad; and if you do not uphold that distinction, then who will?

Sincerely,

Jonathan Rowe, issues director, Commercial Alert
Gary Ruskin, executive director, Commercial Alert

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Last October, Commercial Alert asked the Federal Trade Commission to determine whether Procter & Gamble’s Tremor marketing service is violating federal law prohibiting deceptive advertising. Proctor & Gamble’s Tremor has enlisted about 250,000 teenagers in its buzz marketing sales force. The letter asks the FTC to review evidence that “companies are perpetrating large-scale deception upon consumers by deploying buzz marketers who fail to disclose that they have been enlisted to promote products. This failure to disclose is fundamentally fraudulent and misleading.”

In 2001, Commercial Alert and a group of authors sent letters to book review editors asking them to treat Fay Weldon’s new work “The Bulgari Connection” as an advertisement for the Italian jewelry firm of that name.

Commercial Alert’s mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy. For more information, see our website at: http://www.commercialalert.org.

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