I hope to heck in another 50 years they'll look back at all the ads on the web, in smart home assistants, etc. with the same disdain.
It used to be that if you weren’t paying, you were the product. But these companies figured out something better - they can make you pay to be the product.
[0] https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-ford-infotainment-screen...
Impressive chutzpah.
But no, those blacked out sections are there in the original book, not added by the blog poster. Probably to stretch the few ad sentences over a whole page (or two).
1. Outline the ad bits, and show that they are integrated in the middle of the text (aka it’s not a page of soup ad in the middle of the novel as you might assume).
2. Limit the risks of IP issues due to unauthorised reproduction even though this is just two pages out of a 350-odd pages novel (so almost certainly fair use).
Probably just to fill the pages and maybe to amaze the reader and spend more time on the ad pages.
I have a german edition of a Battletech novel, which has a similar ad for the same 5-min-soup, and the ad itself introduces the blacked out lines.
But it wasn't, of course. Its just a way to make you read it because you think its somehow still part of the novel. After the ad, the whole page starts again with its real (and completely different) content.
I might even be fine with it, if it is printed on a different paper, uses the characters in a clever way, and placed correctly.
Which is also strange because you would think SE values their flagship franchise more. Like not sure Nissin were paying _that much_ even.
For example steamboy, one of th most expensive anime productions, relied on it. So the placement in ff is if anything a mark of quality.
Furthermore Nissin has a pretty strong brand in Japan. Their museum is a pretty popular local visit destination. Their souvenir cup noodles are a common sight at regular family homes.
Japan sort of never lost the soap opera style product sponsorship. Thanks to the production committee style of funding anime the sponsorships serve as key early money. Aka, that specific product placement is itself an artistic expression.
FFXV is already a modern Western[0] RPG where the main characters drive a luxury car and wear tech goth leather jackets. And SE's #4 flagship is a Disney advertisement.
[0] as in cowboy, not as in CRPG
This nit pick comes off as entitled to me.
That's not so bad
It was on two pages such that you could tear it out. The first page was almost empty with a small teaser and on the other page you had the ad text and a small logo.
I found it very weird and it is awful because it tears you out of the story. You lose the flow.
(But anything related to Terry Pratchett probably gets my upvote.)
Perhaps this incident is where he got the idea from?
https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/terry-pratchett-and... > Back in the 90s (starting with Moving Pictures) Terry Pratchett (yet to be knighted) changed his German publisher.
So if anything I wonder if it's the other way round - the publisher reading Moving Pictures and thinking that it was a great idea? Or maybe Terry had seen this in older books and written it into the story, not expecting that it would happen to him?
The Publisher could even argue that it's a rather meta joke they added into the book, which fits really well - but I don't think I'd want to have that argument.
I switched to reading his novels in English (imports from the UK, expensive but worth it).
One of the more prominent examples in recent times is their translation of Gideon the Ninth and its sequels (international bestseller, Nebula and Hugo shortlisted, "easy money" when importing a work). It went so badly they apparently stopped publishing the series altogether past the second book.
So what I gather from this article is
>Did you know that German >paid product placement into >international writers? Yes, it’ >this Neil Gaiman thread).
Great. Thanks for that.
I think my German editions of the Skylark series by E.E.Smith have this.
Both would be unacceptable to me, but at least it wouldn't be AS horrifying as literally editing the text and putting product placement in between the story lines.
there is evil and then there is stupid.
It's not OK to fuck around with an authors words.
