* 27 October, 2001 Bulgari's novel ploy By Sally Patten
A NOVEL about a woman who was jailed for trying to run over the new wife of her ex-husband has turned the literary world on its head. The Bulgari Connection was commissioned by Bulgari, the Italian jewellers, who demanded that its author, Fay Weldon, mention the company name at least 12 times in a positive light.
The literati are aghast that the last sacred barrier between art and commercialism has been smashed, while Weldon, who managed to get the jewellers name into the book 30 times, has been accused of compromising her artistic integrity and of being morally corrupt.
For the world's third biggest jewellers, however, the book's publication in Britain last month has been an altogether more pleasant affair. The Bulgari Connection represents a step-change in the company's advertising campaign and has clearly stolen a march on the group's rivals. The number of newspaper column inches devoted to critiques of the book and its launch at the Dorchester have probably surpassed the undisclosed - though presumably enormous - sum forwarded to Weldon. The novel was the brainchild of Francesco Trapani, Bulgari's chief executive and member of the founding family.
For Trapani, simply placing the family jewels in Hollywood movies was becoming old hat in marketing terms. Clearly he needed something else. "It was my idea. If you want to shorten the distance between yourselves and the largest company you have to be more creative. You have to find a different way of communication."
So Trapani embarked on a hunt for a writer who was famous and preferably English - ideally, the novel's launch was to coincide with the opening of a store in Sloane Street in London.
"We started talking to Fay and she was intrigued with the idea," says Trapani. That Weldon, who justified her acceptance of the offer and the cash pile on the ground that she is never going to land a Booker Prize anyway, decided to use the Bulgari name in the title was a bonus. If the novel is made into a movie, that will be a bonus to end all bonuses, although that is out of Bulgari's control. But has Trapani read it? Well, no. But he does know the plot. . . .
New Straits Times-Life & Times 2* Oct 27, 2001 Wordwise <http://adtimes.nstp.com.my/archive/2001/oct27a.htm>
* An excerpt from Fay Weldon, The Bulgari Connection: <http://print.google.com/print/doc?isbn=0871137968> -- Yoshie
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