Okay, I’m not afraid to admit it: Like every other woman in the Tristate area between the ages of 13 and 30, I sat down this evening to watch the season premier of Gossip Girl. And I enjoyed it!

But, as I gazed at Serena van der Woodsen’s glittering wardrobe, I couldn’t get my mind off of a small company I read about this past week – Delivery Agent – which was ranked the #1 fastest growing privately held media company (calculated by revenue) in America by INC. magazine this month. Delivery agent is the leader in “shopping-enabled entertainment for television shows, movies, magazines, sports, and music videos. Delivery Agent created the market for shopping-enabled entertainment by redefining how products seen on or related to entertainment content are catalogued, sold and measured online.”

That’s right, wanna know where Lauren Conrad bought those limited edition Pumas you saw on The Hills? Or what kind of lip gloss Jessica Simpson wore in her most recent music video? These guys will tell you. And, just in case you were wondering: Complementing your entertainment integration with an interactive marketing investment through Delivery Agent’s network has increased brand demand by up to 400% in some cases.

Now, this kind of ex post facto product placement seems to work brilliantly for fashion and for diet books (remember when Victoria Beckham was seen with Skinny Bitch?!?). But if Jim Halpert left a copy of Huck Finn in plain view on his desk at Dunder Mifflin, would anyone notice?

I think I know the answer to that.

And yet, despite the rapidly changing landscape for book marketers, I am somehow comforted by the fact that we are not yet in a place as a culture where a book could be but one “product” listed along side stiletto shoes and…shimmer powder. Not yet, anyway.

Julia