Using real people/companies

[Cli-Fi]

My WIP deals with the future. I have seen some authors who use brand names to describe what people are wearing or doing etc...But I haven't really seen authors casually mention real names of modern day public figures or companies. I would be extremely neutral in their use. For instance a news video could mention Facebook adding a new Virtual Reality feature to their website while the characters play around with it. Or President (Insert upcoming political figure) was in Africa today to sign a peace treaty. To foreshadow some event taking place there.

For some aspects, I'd rather not create a brand new company that does what Facebook does, because no one will know who they are and I do not want to take up five pages explaining it. Especially if it's just going to be a news blurb mention.

There are of course, more important corporations that are central to my story which I will explain in detailed length, but even in TV Shows these days people are mentioning Facebook and stuff like that more and more instead of using "Fake companies" that really are Facebook.

Obviously I will try to make it be very neutral and not offending in any way. I wouldn't say anything like Zuckerberg went crazy or put them in a bad light. Would that be OK to do?

 

[tinkerdan]

Most of the time it would slide if it was truly neutral.
What I've seen in some that are not so neutral are things that might read like this.

Facepage
Twits
Tweets

I've always thought the transparency of those was egregiously obvious and they might just as well have used the name.

Safest bet would be to distill what they do down to a quick one-liner and create your own brand name when you can.

Chances are (as in the case of one of mine) you'll still accidentally rub up to someone; like the name of a band or some sort of group.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Bebo, Myspace, Geocities?

Will Facebook exist in five years?

Lots of people use "Social Networking" as euphemism for Twitter & Facebook.

In my SF (which is semi contemporary) I don't even mention Google or Wikipedia. Yet the Characters do use Searches, look up information, install root kits, send email write and install trojans, encryption, man-in-middle attacks on Mobile phone voice and data and Fax etc, they use code hidden in images. All sorts of stuff.

 

[tinkerdan]

That's so true.
My characters use e-wafers and mem-stix and even brush their teeth with toothpaste
They use kleenex though; never been able to break them of that habit they could use tissue but apparently it doesn't feel the same.

I did stretch things once and had them use an un-crack-able Briggs & Stratton Safe to keep valuables in.(I figure if anyone does crack it they'll get themselves caught in the mulcher blade.)
They use a variety of yet to be designed Colts for protection.
And some REO trucks

Oh and bandaids another one they just won't use the generics.

 

[Cli-Fi]

That's so true.
My characters use e-wafers and mem-stix and even brush their teeth with toothpaste
They use kleenex though; never been able to break them of that habit they could use tissue but apparently it doesn't feel the same.

I did stretch things once and had them use an un-crack-able Briggs & Stratton Safe to keep valuables in.(I figure if anyone does crack it they'll get themselves caught in the mulcher blade.)
They use a variety of yet to be designed Colts for protection.
And some REO trucks

Oh and bandaids another one they just won't use the generics.

Very Creative stuff there! Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Bebo, Myspace, Geocities?

Will Facebook exist in five years?

Lots of people use "Social Networking" as euphemism for Twitter & Facebook.

In my SF (which is semi contemporary) I don't even mention Google or Wikipedia. Yet the Characters do use Searches, look up information, install root kits, send email write and install trojans, encryption, man-in-middle attacks on Mobile phone voice and data and Fax etc, they use code hidden in images. All sorts of stuff.

I think facebook will exist in five years. Afterall, it's worth over $200 Billion. It'll just be different. They have huge plans for Oculus Rift. My novel starts four years from now

 

[Cli-Fi]

How do you all feel about mentioning public figures though? Does mentioning which well known political figure will be a President five or ten years from now in my universe seem too silly?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Using real people and companies is a fast way to ensure a story because dated and irrelevant. Can you imagine taking seriously a futuristic novel where everyday use of Myspace was a feature?

Also, some companies are incredibly aggressive at protecting their trademarks - I've hand legal notices just for mentioning company names on other websites.

But, worst, is that if any of the actions of motivations of any person or company can be interpreted in any kind of negative light, you can be legally accused of libel.

If you go the self-published route, you'll have to consider that - but if you're trying for traditional published, expect to be told to change all the names.

I struggle to think of any mainstream SF story that used real people or company names, other than in a historical sense.

 

[farntfar]

Is it possible to use nicknames/abbreviations of companies?
I remember in the Galactic Milieu series by Julien May, Marc rode a Beamer motorbike (clearly a BMW, though arguably not), and I think there were a number of other brands of things that were used, (possibly slightly changed) a Hasselblad camera I think, for instance.

Of course maybe she got permission first.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We've had this a few times - you can do it for companies where there name has become synonomous with the acticity eg Hoover. I've also done it with Fisherprice describing a part of a robot - but I couldn't say it was a Fisherprice robot.

As to usung five pages to sum up a familiar concept - your reader will maje the jump for you. I use news nets in my sf and don't say how, or why, they're operated. People will make their own connection. So, just use a catch-all term eg social media hub and your reader will get there, I think.

As Brian said, trademarks date things so are a risk in future-based sf (but useful in real-workd sf to give the sense of time and place.)

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Does mentioning which well known political figure will be a President five or ten years from now in my universe seem too silly?

You really don't need my opinion on that.
Most of the SF I read may already be 10 to 150 years old.

Actually it's extremely difficult to write a story set just slightly in the future unless it's obvious from first page that it's an alternate reality were already history completely different. (Michael Moorcock, Jasper Fford etc). I struggled with this with something I started in 1989, wrote more of in 1994 and then simply recycled some events and characters in my June 2014 writing. I had only a few tech things to change as I'd been careful. The Earth part of story is meant to be set just after "now" no matter when you read it.
Replaced use of Gopher with simply "searched".
Replaced Overhead projector with projector (the reader will assume the source of the slides/presentation is what ever is current).
Replaced discussion of which kind of mobile phone to get with simply Mobile phone (Cell I suppose to Americans).
Removed details of how the Earth's Starship Fusion reactor works (not important and could be outdated next week).
Replaced Notebook and Tablet names for the Alien's portable computer devices (coined in 1989!) with Crystal for pocket sized and Slab for larger ones that would encompass Tablets and Laptops.
Since I started the Microsoft Windows for Tablets (2003) and Netbooks have come and gone. Analogue Cell/Mobile is gone, GSM is becoming obsolescent. The USA CDMA still exists but even more obsolete than GSM.
I never had any brand names of Hardware or Software anyway, they are not important.
Occulas Rift is just a headset, neither first or unique, I'd make any such reference generic.
Same with Facebook, QQ/Ten Cent has more users than Facebook! It's one of many user exploiting so called "Social Media" sites and it's current value, income and user base is actually irrelevant to future success. Fashion is fickle. So I'd use the phrase Social Media. Which might include Tumblr, Flickr, Pinterest, Forums like this, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Google+, MSN, Bebo, Myspace etc as well as Facebook.
Using names like Facepage is more clumsy.

There was a thread recently on this.

Brands that have gone since I started writing much:
Wang, IBM PCs, AST, Compaq, DEC (Digital), RCA, Inmos, National Semiconductors, Telefunken, ICL, Netscape. Digital Research, the Original SCO, the trolling SCO Group and many others.

Brands that still exist but don't remotely do what they used to for main income.
Nixdorf, Apple, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, EMI, HMV, Philips, Logitech (Originally only Compilers and Mouse), Sony and many others.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Briggs & Stratton

I thought they famous for lawn mower engines. They do security too?

 

[Venusian Broon]

I think facebook will exist in five years. Afterall, it's worth over $200 Billion. It'll just be different. They have huge plans for Oculus Rift. My novel starts four years from now

Worldcom (a company I used to analyse in my financial days) was worth about $186 Billion at peak ~1999. It was revolutionising the Telecoms industry in the US at the time (or so they said, they were really revolutionising how to do fraudulent accounts...). Current value: $0 and probably known today as World-who? by most.

Capitalism is all creative destruction and 'eat your own children'. I don't see Facebook as anything special (seen similar hype for loads of other companies in their respective fields...) and could easily slip away or strike a financial iceberg when you least expect it.

I agree with the jist of quite a few of the comments above esp. Brian and Ray - sticking in these brand names leaves you potentially open to making your work date really quickly.

 

[Ursa major]

Note that some brand names seem to vanish, but can still be owned by someone and be resurrected. For instance, the name Bugatti did not appear on new cars for decades but its owner, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VAG, who bought the name in 1998), has subsequently produced (a few**) cars with this name.


** - Note that the original company only produced about 8000 cars.

 

[Ursa major]

On another aspect -- how some things can date a book -- I've just seen this blog post about the tenth anniversary of the publication of Old Man's War on John Scalzi's blog:

Ten years on, I think OMW has aged pretty well, although there are some things I think show its age a bit, like calling portable information devices “PDAs,” which was a term with some currency in 2001, when I wrote the novel, and none whatsoever now.

 

[Cli-Fi]

You really don't need my opinion on that.
Most of the SF I read may already be 10 to 150 years old.

Actually it's extremely difficult to write a story set just slightly in the future unless it's obvious from first page that it's an alternate reality were already history completely different. (Michael Moorcock, Jasper Fford etc). I struggled with this with something I started in 1989, wrote more of in 1994 and then simply recycled some events and characters in my June 2014 writing. I had only a few tech things to change as I'd been careful. The Earth part of story is meant to be set just after "now" no matter when you read it.
Replaced use of Gopher with simply "searched".
Replaced Overhead projector with projector (the reader will assume the source of the slides/presentation is what ever is current).
Replaced discussion of which kind of mobile phone to get with simply Mobile phone (Cell I suppose to Americans).
Removed details of how the Earth's Starship Fusion reactor works (not important and could be outdated next week).
Replaced Notebook and Tablet names for the Alien's portable computer devices (coined in 1989!) with Crystal for pocket sized and Slab for larger ones that would encompass Tablets and Laptops.
Since I started the Microsoft Windows for Tablets (2003) and Netbooks have come and gone. Analogue Cell/Mobile is gone, GSM is becoming obsolescent. The USA CDMA still exists but even more obsolete than GSM.
I never had any brand names of Hardware or Software anyway, they are not important.
Occulas Rift is just a headset, neither first or unique, I'd make any such reference generic.
Same with Facebook, QQ/Ten Cent has more users than Facebook! It's one of many user exploiting so called "Social Media" sites and it's current value, income and user base is actually irrelevant to future success. Fashion is fickle. So I'd use the phrase Social Media. Which might include Tumblr, Flickr, Pinterest, Forums like this, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Google+, MSN, Bebo, Myspace etc as well as Facebook.
Using names like Facepage is more clumsy.

There was a thread recently on this.

Brands that have gone since I started writing much:
Wang, IBM PCs, AST, Compaq, DEC (Digital), RCA, Inmos, National Semiconductors, Telefunken, ICL, Netscape. Digital Research, the Original SCO, the trolling SCO Group and many others.

Brands that still exist but don't remotely do what they used to for main income.
Nixdorf, Apple, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, EMI, HMV, Philips, Logitech (Originally only Compilers and Mouse), Sony and many others.

Thank you for your well thought out post. I can understand the dilemma I have even greater now, thanks to your experience in already dealing with my stated issue. Looks like I'll have to work backwards a little bit and use even more generic terms. Don't worry though my story takes place in a universe expanding 1000 years.