Book Review Editors Asked Not to Review ‘Cathy’s Book’

Commercial Alert has sent letters to more than 300 book review editors asking them not to review Cathy's Book, a young adult book that has a partnership with Cover Girl to include product placement for Lipslicks and other products within the book's content, writes Adrants. The letter from Commercial Alert calls the book "part of a marketing campaign for Procter & Gamble's Cover Girl line." It goes on to say that, "It is not unknown for works of fiction to advance political and other agendas, but this crosses a line. Cathy's Book is in the form of a novel. But in reality it is an adjunct of a corporate marketing campaign aimed at impressionable teenagers. Its contents have been altered to that end.