In Books for Young, Two Views on Product Placement

Book burning is regarded as one of the most heinous activities. Books are considered as precious items containing either information, direction but above all books give narrative accounts of author's dealing with life's experiences. Either through the lens of another world or through the dissected 10 minutes of a bank robbery or a library where people bring the books they write but never check them out, narrative provides a way of interacting with the tension between man and himself, man against the world, man against machine and man against God. Priceless stories have been crafted on these principles which is why the loss of these original works through fire is considered so atrocious.
I believe book burning is perfectly justified in this case. A story that is crafted around the idea of selling products, in a world that doesn't stop selling, and that publishers and so-called "authors" are ok with this warrants a bit of flame. My favorite quote is toward the end of the article here a publisher for HarperCollins is quoted as saying "If you look at Web sites, general media or television, corporate
sponsorship or some sort of advertising is totally embedded in the
world that tweens live in,” Ms. Katz said. “It gives us another
opportunity for authenticity.”
Authenticity? Really. I was pretty sure that authenticity meant something closer to being true to the work, real. If we are living in a world where advertising is now perceived as authentic there's a bigger issue here.
This issue of product placement in print books illustrates 1) continued death of the printed work and 2) an interesting conundrum for the use of such items like Sony e-reader or Amazon Kindle. ( no I was not sponsored to put those references in there) It is not too far afield to consider these companies would include advertisements between pages, in empty space and so forth.