[QuikSand]

First of all, I deserve what I got. I had some driving to do, and wanted a mindless page-turner type to listen to during the drive time, and the library offerings were pretty weak, so I ended up with a James Patterson crime novel. I read a couple of his earlier ones that weren't bad, but he's basically dreadful (maybe the Thomas Kincaid of the literary world, barf), and this one lives up to that impression. Not the point, but I acknowledge up front I have no real room to gripe.


Anyway - my real question is this. In "reading" a recent James Patterson thriller, I thought it a little unusual that there was such an extended scene where the hero character and his family go out to shop for a new car. Then a later scene where he goes back to buy it. And then another when he is driving it ans reveling in the wonder of the new car. Each with prominent mentions of the make and even the model of the car.

I couldn't help but think that this might actually be the same thing we see these days in movies -- where a company pays for the right to have its product used prominently and favorably in the movie. I don't know if anyone really recoils at this sort of thing (any more, at least) but it certainly happens in movies... so why not in other media too? Hell, the book is total crap anyway, it's not like we're ruining a masterwork somehow.


Anyway... anyone in the know about this sort of thing? Commonly known practice? Is Patterson a groundbreaker here? Or am I just imagining things, and the specificity was just part of what passes for "flavor" in such a book?

And, if it truly is product placement... is there some point at which I/we ought to be offended by this practice?