Merchandise Placement

The "Bad Twin" manuscript finally showed up on LOST last night, making for a single uncomfortable moment in what was otherwise one of the best episodes of the season. Hurley was seen reading it by the campfire, and even tried to describe it to Sayid before he cut him off.

Word on the street (i.e. "The Fuselage") is that the author of "Bad Twin," one Gary Troup (an anagram for "Purgatory") was not only one of the passengers on the lost Flight 815, but that he was the crash survivor unlucky enough to get sucked into the jet engine in the series' pilot. What we know for sure is that the novel Bad Twin will be available in May as an official Lost merchandizing tie-in. We know this because it's already listed on Amazon.com.

The scene was disconcerting because it pulled me out of the story, however briefly, as I realized that I was witnessing an example of product placement. Or "merchandise placement," as I prefer to call it, since it's an example of Lost advertising one of its own products instead of some other brand's.

It immediately reminded me of the IDIC pin story from the days of Classic Trek. IDIC stands for "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations," and refers to a pendant that Spock wears in the original Star Trek episode, "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" The ornamental pin was designed by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and a discussion of it was inserted into the script in order to advertise it to fans, much to the annoyance of the cast.

Of course the fact that Bad Twin is a book that was supposed to have been written by a fictional character on a TV series is more reminiscent of Twin Peak's The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and FBI Agent Dale Cooper's autobiography. And you know, I read those, and I'm sure I'll read this too, so obviously it's an effective form of advertising.

But it just feels a little cheap, like the first time an Ewok pops up in Return of the Jedi, a turning point in the Star Wars Saga after which every character, alien, spaceship, and weapon was conceived as a toy first and a story element second.

Because while the tie-in is sort of "neat," I don't envision the discovery of the manuscript on the island moving the story forward, or providing any insight into the main characters. Unlike Laura Palmer's diary or Agent Cooper's tapes, it doesn't seem to be organic to the plot, and therefore appears to be "tacked on" sheerly for marketing purposes.

But hey, if it adds to the fun of the Lost experience, more power to them. I would just hate to see the show suffer from sloppy writing or clumsy merchandising.