Class, Turn to Page 72 of Your Coca-Cola Textbook ...

Today we talked about naming rights and product placements in books. Our jumping-off point for the conversation was a recent Sunday Opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Selling Between the Lines," written by novelist Jane Smiley.

We're used to seeing these things slipped into movies, of course, and we're beginning to see more of it on TV. But naming rights and product placements in books still flies pretty much below the radar. More than anything, I wanted to see if my students had any deep objections to this sort of advertising/brand-building/hype. For the most part, it was cool with them.