Mentioning Product Names

Mention away. Just don't denigrate outside of opinion.

There's no problem with mentioning products. But you do have to know why you're doing it. Why say "Minute Maid Orange Juice" rather than just "orange juice"?

Like any other word in your novel, the trade name must reveal character, advance the plot, or support the theme.

Do whatever you want; free speech is a pretty great thing. I suggest you write a memoir about how TGI Friday's Loaded Potato Skins gave you AIDS.

James D. Macdonald said:

There's no problem with mentioning products. But you do have to know why you're doing it. Why say "Minute Maid Orange Juice" rather than just "orange juice"?

Like any other word in your novel, the trade name must reveal character, advance the plot, or support the theme.

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I agree wholeheartedly with the above.

I mention real brands in my novel (one the themes is "branding," and how we brand not only products but people), though I also employ faux brands (if I'm making fun of something, I make up a brand rather than use a real one).

Just be wary of overdoing it. There's a series I love that tags almost every product mentioned with a brand name. Half of them I have no clue what they are. It really slows the story down for me when I get to those parts and I tend to skim.

I'm trying to be geographically accurate in a fairly remote place. So my MC et al will go to the ACE Hardware I found with Google Maps.

Wark said:

I'm trying to be geographically accurate in a fairly remote place. So my MC et al will go to the ACE Hardware I found with Google Maps.

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That's fine, as long as the hardware store isn't a front for drug smugglers, or whatever.

What Ice said.

Brand name "fever" is perfectly legal. William Gibson does it all the time.

Wark said:

I'm trying to be geographically accurate in a fairly remote place. So my MC et al will go to the ACE Hardware I found with Google Maps.

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Two Whys? 1. Why do you need to be "geographically accurate" in this "fairly remote place"?

2. Why do you need to use this, or any other, brand-name? (If I'm reading a story, I really really really don't care what hardware store, by name, your MC goes to, unless that name has a significant connection with the plot, and I'm stretching pretty hard to figure out how an ACE hardware store would figure differently in a story than would a True Value hardware store.)

Aside from those questions, I second what Danthia said, for emphasis. Stories that toss in a lot of brand-names under a concept of misguided specificity drive me wild, especially if they are things I don't recognize.

caw

My main female character is a fast food junkie, so I mention McDonalds quite often in my novel.
I do make sure though, that although the main male character has the same thoughts as I do about their offerings, I don't say anything bad about them.

I mention car brands all the time, but that reveals what kind of person the driver is. Status, or perceived status, income bracket, etc.

Enzo said:

I mention car brands all the time, but that reveals what kind of person the driver is. Status, or perceived status, income bracket, etc.

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Point being that some brand names carry more cachet than others. Yeah, it would matter in a story to me if the protag drove a Lamborghini Countache or a '66 Volkswagen Beetle. It wouldn't matter if the protag buys the nails for his pipe bomb at ACE Hardware or True Value Hardware. Or if he drinks Coke or Pepsi. Or if he wipes his ass with Charmin or Northern tissue.

It needs to MATTER. To the reader, not to the writer.

caw

blacbird said:

Two Whys? 1. Why do you need to be "geographically accurate" in this "fairly remote place"?

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It's Upper Matecombe Key in the Florida Keys. I can't just pull a Wal-Mart out of my ass.

Wark said:

It's Upper Matecombe Key in the Florida Keys. I can't just pull a Wal-Mart out of my ass.

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Then don't. Your protag went to the "department store" and bought Thing X. I don't need to know it was a Wal-Mart or a K-Mart or a Sears. Likewise I still don't see the necessity for specifying "the ACE hardware store" as opposed to just "the hardware store." Perhaps it's a story-context issue, but if so, it isn't obvious from your original post.

caw

What about serviettes from service station's restaurants?

blacbird said:

Or if he wipes his ass with Charmin or Northern tissue.

It needs to MATTER. To the reader, not to the writer.

caw

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This is helpful--I'd just been wondering if it was okay to use brand names for drugs (eg, vicodin) vs. generic. Glad to hear it's probably not a problem.

My reason to mention specific businesses when in compact or isolated places is because of how I would feel if I had been there.

[deleted - blah blah blah, I say a bunch of crap]

Your MC shouldn't eat at the pizza joint across from the UN Building unless there is one. And you might as well name it.

Yeah, I've got to admit, my fast food junkie lives in Normandie and I was searching Google at 5 a.m., one Saturday morning, to find out exactly where McDonalds restaurants were situated there for her to go to. I got the road and even a description of it, including the horrid cobblestones that are in a lot of French places, from someone's good blog of France.

The cobblestones actually gave me another good idea for the story; my fast food junkie complaining about them, thus making her French guy peeved that she didn't like French food or their cobblestoned streets.

Wark said:

My reason to mention specific businesses when in compact or isolated places is because of how I would feel if I had been there.

[deleted - blah blah blah, I say a bunch of crap]

Your MC shouldn't eat at the pizza joint across from the UN Building unless there is one. And you might as well name it.

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