Young Writers Society

This is a question that's been bothering me: Are you allowed to put brand names, book titles or movie titles in your novel? (E.G. Do you have any Hershey's Toblerone for me to eat while watching Harry Potter?) Thanks!!!

Why not?

If you publish it, that's a different issue, but even then there are still many books with book/movie/brand names in it. So go ahead! It also adds to character as well. And if you are considering publishing, see what your publisher will say.

It is highly dependent on the brand.

I've looked into a few guidelines when it comes to mentions in non-paid placements, and some companies are vicious. One thing I heard about Coca Cola was they went after anybody who used their brand name in materials not produced by them. But, some brands are just fine with it. However, if you get a brand that is particularly protective of its image (which is 95% of companies. Believe me. With brands being able to control people's perception of their company less and less with social media, advertisers are working doubletime to keep positive perception and controlling every aspect of a company's interaction with people), then you wouldn't be able to do it. Because, whether or not you intend it, people are going to associate your message with that brand. Brands tend to like keeping control of what messages they are putting out.

Ahmad said that several movies with brand names in them— that's because the brands paid a whoooole lot of money to have their name appear in the movie. If you've ever seen WALL-E, then you'd probably heard this sound as WALL-E gets up. Apple paid near/over seven figures (1 million and up) to get that sound in there. That is the sound of a Mac computer starting up.There was a competition between Apple and Microsoft to get their sound in there.

Having spent most of the past year working with brands and finding out how much work they put into creating a brand, I'd be very careful at best. You could get away with it, companies might not mind, but I've been finding companies are getting even more possessive of their brand as the years go by.

What you could do is ask permission, but brands might/probably will ask for things in return for letting you use their brand. Like, the name has to show up x number of times.

This, however, is only if you publish. It'd be nigh on impossible to catch all the online mentions, so it's quite a bit safer. But if you're making money with their brand name in there...? Have fun with legal possibilities.

Mind, this is bad case scenario. They could not care. You could go under the radar. Companies could be just fine with the free advertising. It depends on a lot of factors. Mostly, if the brand is shown positively.

Besides that, it dates your work (Brands aren't going to be around forever, after all). And, it could jerk readers out of the world you created without brands. Brands tend to be rather clearly a reality, when the work is mostly fiction. So, you might have to be careful with the usage so it adds to the story, instead of jerking people out of it.

There's also how people might suddenly like your characters a little bit less if they prefer Coke over Pepsi, or would rather watch Harry Potter over Batman.

All in all, I'd advise against it. It's a bit too much a game of Russian Roulette whether or not it'll work.