stupid terrible Cathy's Book

This is going to get a little confusing, but just stay with me, okay? I promise to make it very clear what's going on.

The conceit of *Cathy's Book* is that it's a sketchbook belonging to a teenage artist who left it for her friend Emma to find in case she disappears. Cathy herself has gone off to find her ex-boyfriend Victor, who she thinks could be involved in some dirty business with the big pharmaceutical company where he works as a researcher.

The buzz surrounding *Cathy's Book* is that readers CAN immerse themselves more fully into the fiction by calling phone numbers mentioned in the book and examining the materials included in a pouch taped to the inside front cover: an index card bearing handwritten notes, pages torn from a date book, a Chinese take-out menu, a lipstick-kissed napkin, antiqued letters, and a family tree.

One of the book’s authors, Sean Stewart, is the creator of one of the first so-called alternate reality games, I Love Bees, a cross-media game in which players visited websites, called numbers, and discussed the clues amongst themselves online as they tried to solve a puzzle. It was also a viral marketing campaign that promoted the video game Halo 2. (This promotional connection was apparently evident to most players as the game was in progress.) *Cathy's Book* seemed slated to be another ultramodern interactive adventure, an ARG only in book form and specifically for girls.

But the book got some negative attention this summer when the nonprofit organization Commercial Alert and a New York Times article reported that the book contains product placement for the cosmetics company Cover Girl, which is owned by Procter & Gamble. In exchange, the article reported, the book would be promoted on Beinggirl.com, a content website with the tagline "for girls, by girls" that is operated by Procter & Gamble.

So here's what the reader sees: Alongside some of Cathy's drawings of herself are lists of the specific Cover Girl products she uses to turn into her different guises, such as "Goth Grrl," "Corporate Drone Girl," and, of course, "UnderCover Girl."

Gives you a little shiver, doesn't it? The first make-up mention doesn't happen until page 45 of the 143-page book, at which point readers might be immersed in the story, or confused into thinking of it as a regular novel. As much as the book's creators would no doubt like for us to feel we've entered some futuristic world where all the rules have changed, the truth is (a) some of the old rules still apply, and (b) this gimmick is just cheesy. Who's going to trust a narrator who starts out as a likably flawed teenage friend and then yanks off her mask to reveal her true identity as a middle-aged adman? Alternate reality, indeed.

Still, it's very sly. The only mention I could find in the book itself about its relationship to the company is a note written in "Cathy's" handwriting on the copyrights page, which is covered with her other doodles. It says, "Emma thought the good folks at Cover Girl and BeingGirl.com would kick-start my career and help me get the message out. She was right, I was wrong, what else is new? Thanks, guys."

Yes, it's a confusing world we live in, where advertising is often "seamless" and references to chain retail establishments are what pass for the collective subconscious. This latest installment in marketing weirdness was especially disappointing to me for a few reasons, not the least of which was that I honestly wanted to like the book. It's a nice-looking, decent little adventure story peppered with unusual narratives, such as two simultaneous IM conversations printed alongside each other.

That note from Cathy on the copyrights page, though--that's worth a second look. Emma is Cathy's best friend and the hardheaded member of their little duo. She never liked Victor in the first place and thinks Cathy is silly for pursuing him. But when Emma's dad loses his job and her plan to go to a prestigious college and implement "Thirty-thirty"--her plan to make $30 million by age 30--looks like it might be in jeopardy, she decides to help Cathy track down Victor after all. Victor, you see, has access to lots of money, and Emma wants some of it. Just as Cathy gets tough by applying the right shade of gunmetal gray eyeliner, Emma casts off her good-girl image by trying to convince Cathy to "seduce" her ex-boyfriend out of some cash. As she tells Cathy, "It's always important to cultivate acquaintances of high net worth."