Perfectly Reasonable Question No. 4: On Mentioning Brand Names

Dan Goldberg, who identifies himself as the user of an Android phone, thinks The Times is giving Apple some free publicity, and he doesn't like it.

Mr. Goldberg, a reader from El Cerrito, Calif., quoted from a June Travel section article in The Times in which the author wrote, “Before a recent trip to Europe I downloaded 10 of the apps to my iPhone.”

Mr. Goldberg's e-mail to me posed the following questions:

Has Apple paid for this gratuitous mention-endorsement? Have New York Times employees been given free iPhones by Apple. Could “smartphone” have been used instead? In movies the studios get paid for such endorsements; does The New York Times?

I understand the reader's implicit point, but I have been assured that there is no financial relationship, like a “product placement” fee, at work here.

I asked Philip B. Corbett, the associate managing editor for standards, to respond. In an e-mail, he told me that The Times goes “to great lengths to avoid any link between editorial decisions and advertising.” The paper also tries “to guard against even the perception or suspicion of such a connection.”

He wrote:

In a story like this - basically an advice story about using apps to book last-minute hotel rooms - it made perfect sense for the writer to be specific about the device he happened to be using. He also pointed out that most of the apps are available in Android versions.

In other cases, even if the specific brand or product is not crucial information, such details might add color or texture - perhaps a profile subject favors Gucci bags and drives a Porsche, or wears Levi's and drives a beat-up Dodge pickup. Substituting generic descriptions for the specifics is likely to water down the story rather than enliven it.

But whatever the writer or editor's reason for mentioning a brand, advertising or “product placement” doesn't figure into it.

I agree with Mr. Corbett's evaluation. While it's possible to overdo the use of brand names in articles, they often add personality and specificity to a piece of writing.

I am answering questions from Times readers. On Wednesday I wrote about the use of direct quotations and about identifying writers of letters to the editor. Thursday morning I took up Web links and vulgarity and will later get to a question about “NYT Picks.”