The Rise of the Fictomercial in Advertising

Posted on February 22, 2007

So what's a fictiomercial? It's part of the growing trend of non-traditional ways to advertise products which has grown to a $2 billion business. A fictionmerical is a piece of fiction written as a work for hire by an author who is given certain guidelines about the product being advertised. The purpose of the fictomercial, which can be a novel, a graphic novel or series of comics, is to showcase the product in a well-written, entertaining story. The Washington Post describes the latest fictomercial for Lexus and gives a brief excerpt from noir-style comic.

This kind of writing job is usually work for hire -- the company will own the rights to the fictomercial or billboard novel. But it's not ghostwriting, which is why everyone knows that Mark Haskell Smith wrote the cool Lexus comic entitled "Black Sapphire Pearl" which is featured on the Lexus website on in Lexus's quarterly magazine.

Here is a short excerpt from the comic: "The Lexus loaner turned out to be a GS Hybrid. To say it was an upgrade from the battered Crown Vic I'd driven with the LAPD would be an understatement. For one, you don't need a key. You keep the remote control thing in your pocket and to start the car you just push a button on the dash. Like on a computer. In fact the car's more like a super-powered laptop on wheels than anything else."

Oh, and if you're worried that writing a fictomercial is somehow going to hurt your chance at being a great literary author, consider this: Charles Dickens wrote an advertisement praising hotel in which he stayed. The advertisement was later turned into a book. This leads the Post to speculate whether Dickens received free rides from the Pickwick carriage line while he was writing The Pickwick Papers.



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