Have there been any book commercials on TV?

[Jragon]

I just thought about it, not sure why, but I did. I'll admit, I don't watch the channels most people do, but even on Cartoon Network I'm surprised I've never seen so much as a Harry Potter commercial. And come to think of it, quite surprised that at the very least Discovery or History never plugged an Encyclopedia or book on WWII or something.

I've seen plenty of commercials aimed at getting kids to learn to read or telling them appreciate books. I may have seen one or two commercials plugging products like Colbert's or Stewart's books on their networks (though I'm not sure if that was only on their show or not, I don't recall seeing straight commercials on CC but I could be wrong). But I don't think I've ever really seen a commercial for a novel or non-fiction work in recent memory. I may have seen one or two Scholastic Book Club commercials way back when (like, mid '90s), but I could be imagining those. But even that wouldn't be plugging a book so much as a service/series.

Are there any you can think of? And no, "how to make money fast!" schemes don't count as "books" for purposes of this discussion. I'm entirely willing to accept that I simply watch the wrong channels.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Yes I have actually! I was very surprised by it. I haven't seen it recently, but I saw it multiple times a month or two back.

It was not a children's book, not a Colbert/Stewart book, and not a Trudeau-esque scam book. The commercial had the book floating in front of a mountain landscape or some such.

I had never heard of the author, which added to my surprise. "Hm, some guy I've never heard of has a commercial for a normal book. That's pretty cool."

Sorry I couldn't remember anything specific at all, I don't pay the best of attention to commercials.

[mhendo]

I've seen occasional TV ads for airport-style pulp fiction.

[Sampiro]

The only one I've seen lately was a blip- maybe 10 seconds if that- at the end of a TV show (one of those "show credits are rolling in a small box in the corner" things) announcing Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol.

Scientology used to air ads for Dianetics but I haven't seen any lately. (The Mormons and other religious groups occasionally advertise but I'm assuming you're not referring to religious books.)

I know I've seen book commercials but they're very rare. The reason is probably money; the price of a 30 second ad even on cable would make a huge dent in or exceed the advertising budget of most books from authors who aren't well known while authors who are well known probably don't need the exposure.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

The Lost Symbol is the book I was talking about! Dan Brown sounds familiar to my sleep deprived brain. Probably done something super famous and that I own a copy of.

EDIT: The commercials I've seen for it were longer than 10-second blips though. They were true commercials during a normal commercial break.

[emcee2k]

I've seen a few. Normally, it's just a narrator going on about all the romance and intrigue, well showing a shot of the book over a scenic background.

[emcee2k]

The Lost Symbol is the book I was talking about! Dan Brown sounds familiar to my sleep deprived brain. Probably done something super famous and that I own a copy of.

EDIT: The commercials I've seen for it were longer than 10-second blips though. They were true commercials during a normal commercial break.

Da Vinci Code.

[madmonk28]

I've seen occasional TV ads for airport-style pulp fiction. Me too, hey're usually incredibly short, just a few seconds.

[CalMeacham]

There have been ads for books on TV for decades. They are generally airport-style page-turners, but they're generally by established "names" in the field. They seem to be 30 second spots.

I recall in particular that Sidney Sheldon's the Other Side of Midnight was advertised on TV right after midnight on New Year's Eve (clever, huh?). This was clearly after the 1973 release, and before the 1977 movie, so that pegs that they've been doing this for at least 35 years.

[LurkMeister]

They're currently running ads for James Patterson's Swimsuit.

[jayjay]

Of course, there's the classic Donavan Freberg Encyclopedia Brittanica (www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkBxl8Cq-fI) ad.

[Marley23]

I've seen occasional TV ads for airport-style pulp fiction.
Yeah, that's all I've ever seen. Mostly they're for James Patterson books like Kiss the Girls and whathaveyou. I may have seen ads for Ed McBain or Patricia Cornwell, but I don't know for sure if they were on TV.

ETA: I think I remember TV commercials for Stephen King's Duma Key.

[tdn]

I was going to mention Dianetics. There are also the occasional late night "But wait! That's not all!" commercials. Time/Life occasionally has these, and I came this --> <-- close to ordering a series of history books from them once.

Haven't I occasionally seen ads for cookbooks? I'm not sure.

And I think that Jackie Collins has had some ads.

[Bryan Ekers]

But for Time/Life ads, I'd never have learned about the outlaw who shot a man for snorin' too loud.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Yes, I remember seeing ads for "Along Came a Spider."

[Mama Zappa]

I'm sure I've seen them, but nothing I particularly remembered.

However, recently I saw an ad for a book.... in a movie theater.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Looked amusing.

[aldiboronti]

Yeah, here in the UK each time James Patterson has a new pulp novel out we get bombarded with ads for it on the main TV channels, complete with hokey dramatizations of the plotline.

It surprised me because I hadn't seen this kind of marketing for novels before.

[Elendil's Heir]

I remember the Dianetics TV ads from the Eighties, too, and an ad for some potboiler romance/thriller - Jacqueline Susann, maybe? - from around the same time. Otherwise none.

[elfkin477]

There are a lot of ads for various James Patterson books, and some female author whose name escapes me at the moment. They only started within the last few years, though.

[mobo85]

They're currently running ads for James Patterson's Swimsuit.

There have been a bunch of ads for Patterson's books. Since Patterson himself appears in most of the ads, he has an unusual voice, and they usually have titles based on nursery rhymes, I used to parody Patterson's voice: "This is James Patterson, with my newest thriller Hickory Dickory Dock."

It was not a children's book, not a Colbert/Stewart book, and not a Trudeau-esque scam book. The commercial had the book floating in front of a mountain landscape or some such.

That might be the ad for Dianetics, since the cover depicts a volcano.

[Two Many Cats]

I remember one from many years ago which featured a woman laying out on a lawn yelling, "Where are the children???!!!"

Book of the same title as the yell. Never read it.

[Drain Bead]

I saw one for The Notebook when it was out.

[Sampiro]

Many years ago, probably the late 1980s, when 1-900 numbers were becoming huge and many celebrities had one (Waylon Jennings comes to mind), Dean Koontz had one for his "Troll Free Number" on which you could hear (I'm guessing a recording of) him discussing his books and occasionally taking live calls. I remembered thinking at the time that Stephen King was probably rolling his eyes whenever that came on.

[Sampiro]

Of course, there's the classic Donavan Freberg Encyclopedia Brittanica (www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkBxl8Cq-fI) ad.

IIRC he became an online porn entrepreneur (not a porn star but producer/siteowner). I know he had a falling out with his father (Stan said in an interview they hadn't spoken for years other than through occasional emails) but I'm not sure if that's why.

[TV time]

I remember about 10 or so years ago that there were a number of romance-type books being advertized. Not quite full romances (maybe, I didn't buy any of them), but with a definite romance-type bent to the ad, something to the affect of, "Mckinze was facing a whole new world, and being without Talon would only make it harder for her as she fought back from a lost life." All this was said as a live action picture of a woman in a cloak standing on a cliff facing the ocean with waves crashing morphed into a book cover.

I seem to remember the ads being on the super stations like WGN and TBS or maybe even Lifetime.

[gwendee]

The ones I do recall coincided with miniseries, and were often for works by the same author.

in the middle of Centennial..."Jame's Michener's Chesapeake, now available from Framis and Sons publishing. Wherever fine books are sold."

Judith Krantz, Alex Haley, Jackie Collins, same thing.

[JpnDude]

Time-Life Books used to have lots of TV commercials that played often during the '80s-90's. Some of the most memorable were for the Mysteries of the Unknown (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNk6CCTWu8M) series.

[kenobi 65]

I suspect you generally don't see many book ads on TV because TV ads aren't cheap, and only the biggest names have a chance to sell enough books for a TV ad campaign to pay for itself with increased sales. Or, alternately, if you have a book with a very well-defined target audience, which happens to have a high viewership of a particular cable channel, then it might make sense. (Or, as some have noted, running an ad for an author's book during a miniseries based on another of that author's books.)

Re: Harry Potter. Those books were so popular, and there was such strong word-of-mouth when each book was coming out, that an expensive TV campaign was totally unnecessary. The books sold themselves.

Re: the Time-Life books. Those were a different case, for two reasons:
1) Those were what are called "direct-response" ads ("call now!"), which work very differently from traditional advertising
2) Time-Life was essentially selling you not one book, but a subscription to a series.

[elfkin477]

I remember one from many years ago which featured a woman laying out on a lawn yelling, "Where are the children???!!!"

Book of the same title as the yell. Never read it. That's Where are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark. I found it pretty disturbing, but I was 14 or 15 when I read it. They made a movie of it too.

[AppallingGael]

But for Time/Life ads, I'd never have learned about the outlaw who shot a man for snorin' too loud.

Could come in handy. See Final Jeopardy in this (http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=590) game.

[control-z]

I'm pretty sure I remember commercials for Danielle Steele and John Grisham books. Here is a Grisham commercial, think it's from the UK but I've seen them in the US: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQhDMTVlDI