XOXO, Product Placement

In case you didn’t understand the above reference, my blog post is about our favorite Manhattan socialites. I’m talking about the infamous Gossip Girl book series. Yes, the hit television show is actually based on an equally juicy set of novels. It’s hard to believe the sheer magnitude of product placement in each book; the first few pages alone are a bewildering array of elite brand names and foreign designers. Takashimaya, Barneys, Campari, Henri Bendel, Christian Louboutin, Hermés, Cristal, Manolo Blahnik. Excusez-moi?


The allure of the series is its portrayal of society’s upper echelon. And for Gossip Girl fans, nothing spells elitism quite like expensive brand names. As Serena and Blair waltz around the Upper East Side clad in haute couture and triple digit footwear, author Cecily von Ziegesar carefully details every last frill of their outfits to her eager readers. Ziegesar’s young audience laps up the glamour and sophistication associated with these fabulous outfits and grows to value designers and brand names. Why else would hoards of suburban girls demand Northface fleeces, So Low sweatpants, Tiffany’s jewelry and Ugg boots? (Note: Back in 2005, this blogger was guilty of owning quite a few of the aforementioned items.)

Although product placement in black and white print may seem more obvious than quick glimpses of the Coke logo on television shows, it manages to hide from many consumers under the guise of fiction, and it is in books like Gossip Girl that product placement can have the biggest impact.