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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Here we have a can of the world's most popular cola -- no names, no lawsuits.''
|'''Richard Hammond''' in ''[[Brainiac: Science Abuse]]''.}}
When a script calls for a consumer product, and no one has offered the producers a [[Product Placement]] deal, a television program must resort to making up a
Under Canadian broadcast regulations, product placement is considered a form of payola and is strictly forbidden. To prevent even the appearance of product placeent, real brand names can't be shown on locally-produced TV shows. Dramas, comedies, and even cooking and home improvement shows have to block out the brand names of the items they use or replace them with Brand X (TV sports and news/current affairs programs are exempt, the first because the advertising can't be controlled and the second because news programs may have to report a story specifically about a product, and also because they can do whatever they damn well want). These rules don't affect imported content, though.
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Sometimes fictional products can become story elements in and of themselves, either as part of the "world background" of a show, or as [[Running Gag|running gags]].
[[Film
In addition to Brand X, some movie and TV producers may choose to use discontinued products as a point of style. [[Quentin Tarantino]] is known for using boxes of discontinued cereal in his movies, such as "Fruit Brute". Wes Anderson used a discontinued brand of European cigarettes in ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]''.
At one time this was a universal practice in advertising, allowing a marketer to [[Side
However, in some cases it may be mandatory. For example, in Germany it used to be against the law to compare your product to a competitor's product when it was identifiable. Even now, the "laws against unfair competition" allow only verifiable objective comparisons without diminishing the competitor, legally regulated to a point where advertisers rather take a pass on comparisons than risk exposing themselves to lawsuits.
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In some kinds of advertisement, items other than the one advertised that would normally be used in its own branded packaging will be found in some kind of neutral or unbranded packaging. The most common examples of this are advertisements for cereals, in which milk will be poured from clear glass jugs rather than the carton or bottle it is sold in. It is probable that this is done in order to reuse the advertisement in different countries as much as for avoiding giving exposure to those other products.
[[Bland-Name Product]] is a subtrope. See also [[Acme Products]], which is any generic corporation that seems to supply ''everything'' a character, or entire cast, uses. When this happens with firearms, it is an [[AKA
Incidentally, the notion of using ''fake'' brands that resemble the real brand ([[
Not to be confused with the band Brand X.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Apple Computer Parodies ==
* Many computers in fiction (especially cartoons) will prominently feature a logo consisting of some kind of fruit, usually a pear, as a reference to Apple Computer's various products. Some of them (especially during the early iMac's time) will also bear a strong resemblance in other ways:
** Although they look somewhat different from the iMac, the Navis in ''[[
*** Incidentally, Lain's Navi ''is'' based on a Mac, albeit an even older one than the iMac: namely, the [
** In ''[[
** A similar laptop shows up in ''[[
** The newspaper comic ''[[FoxTrot]]'' does this with the "iFruit" brand, whose computers were originally ''shaped like the fruits they're named after''. At one point, Andy attempts to collect them as she would collect * ahem* "Bitty Babies".
*** Other parodies abound, including "Iron Mysticus," a reference to two separate games. It also had a sequel, "Rivabolo."
** The Cheat's computer in ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' is obviously a tangerine iMac DV. See below.
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** ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' has "carrots" whose logo is, of course, a multi-coloured carrot with a bite taken out of it. [[Steve Jobs]] is, consequently, a rabbit.
** Rob in ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' has a Pear laptop.
** So does Stephan in ''[[
** There's another show/film where the brand name on a "pear" computer was plainly visible: [
** Pear computers show up as a running gag in shows produced by Dan Schneider, such as ''Zoey101'' and ''[[
*** "Pear" notebooks show up in an unknown German TV series. In the same show, someone is looking things up on "[[Wikipedia|Realpedia]]".
** Probably the ur- and most famous example predates the iMac by over a decade: the Banana Junior computer from ''[[Bloom County]]'', which became a character unto itself.
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** One episode of ''[[Mega Man NT Warrior]]'' showed Dr. Higgsby using a laptop with a strawberry logo.
** One episode of ''[[Maya and Miguel]]'' featured yet another laptop with a pear icon.
** In one episode of ''[[
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] IV'' features advertisements and an in-game website for Fruit Computers, whose logo is a bowl of fruit and released a phone that looks exactly like a banana-shaped iPhone.
** Which (in GTA's usual outragious sense of humor) has an app that can tell if you're pregnant when you [[Hilarious in Hindsight|pee on the phone]].
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* The online RPG ''Forum Warz'' has a store called Plum Computers with 3 products: the iPrune (standard desktop unit), the [[Prune Book]] (a laptop) and the [[Prune Serv]] (a server).
* There's an episode of the Disney version of ''[[Doug]]'' where the characters are locked in the school during a snowstorm and the [[Rich Bitch]] of the group pulls out a laptop to try to communicate with the outside world for help. While the laptop itself was pretty indistinct, the desktop environment it exhibited was unmistakably Apple's Classic Mac OS, with a Beet (a running gag in the series) in the place of the Apple on the top-left corner of the screen.
* A ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* [[The BBC]] Radio 4 comedy ''Mind Your Own Business'' had Satsuma computers, which were derided as spending too much time being friendly, rather than just doing what they're told.
** Of course, in the UK, as well as Apple, there was Apricot Computers, Acorn Computers (creators of the [[BBC Micro]]) and Tangerine Computer Systems (creators of Oric 1 and Atmos, an early rival to the Sinclair Spectrum).
* ''[[League of Super Evil]]'' has Rotten Core, a manufacturer of gadgets and devices for villainous operations who has hardware designs and a retail presence very much like Apple.
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* ''[[Futurama]]'' has the ''Eye''phone.
== Advertising ==
* An advertisement will often compare the advertiser's product to the "national leading brand" of a direct competitor. Unfortunately, brand-to-brand comparisons can backfire as setting the competitor's brand as standard of comparison is an implicit endorsement of that product. Eduard Shevardnadze (at 1993, at the opening of a Tbilisi Coca-Cola plant) announcing "It tastes just like Pepsi!" makes a great advert... for the competition. Hence the temptation to make the "leading brand" a Brand X.
* An advertisement may contain incidental items which complement the product being sold, but which are not manufactured by the advertiser. A telly, for instance, might be displayed in an advert with a football game on the display – in which team names and logos are conspicuously fake or absent on all of the jerseys. (The advertiser makes tellies, not soccer uniforms.) Likewise, an advert for a record player will likely show it playing a fictional band's discs from a fictional record label.
* There is a Listerine commercial that actually says that "people prefer it two-to-one over the leading brand." To be fair, this can be interpreted charitably to mean "the leading brand made by a competitor." But if it's possible for "the leading brand" to mean this, then that might be the answer to the question, "Why isn't your brand the leading brand?" Maybe it sometimes is the leading brand!▼
** One way ads get around this dilemma is to say "the next leading brand".▼
==
* ''[[Wizard's Soul]]'' contains a TCG that is based heavily based off [[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|a real game with the initials "MTG"]], a key difference being with ''Wizard Soul'' is how popular it is. In Wizard's Soul if you stopped a random person on the street and asked him/her what his/her favorite color combination was you'd probably get an answer other than a "huh?". There are some things that aren't in MTG that seem to be from other games. For example an [[Yu-Gi-Oh|ultimate creature that wins you the game if you have all five parts]].
* ''[[Excel Saga (Anime)|Excel Saga]]'' had "Across 2000" (a parody of Windows 2000).▼
** <s>Pro Points</s> Duel Points
* In ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure]]'', Honoka has applied "PRE-Q BAN" brand adhesive bandages to at least two different people's minor wounds (this is a pun: "Pretty Cure" is sometimes known as simply "purikyua" [pronounced more or less "pre-cue"]).
* [[Death Note
** Don't forget [[Bland-Name Product|Fanasonic]]!
*** Also, if you look real closely, the search engine that Light uses is called "Generic". (It looks an awful lot like Google Image.)
**** L has an obvious iMac in addition to his obvious MacBook, though to me the logo looked more like a twisted-up "I."
* The opening credits of ''[[Princess Nine]]'' include, in what is presumably Koshie stadium, advertisements for "Mitsuhishi", "Sont", and "Ranasonia", in fonts highly reminiscent of the Mitsubishi, Sony, and Panasonic brand-names.
* Fictional fast-food brand "Amigo Tacos" is used as a throwaway name in an early episode of the anime ''[[El Cazador
* ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'' featured "Ningyonet Explorer", the mermaid web browser.
* ''[[
* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' introduced the world to Hescafé brand instant coffee and Mational light bulbs.
* In the ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'' anime there's an audition for a movie by Raramount Pictures.
* "WcDonalds", a stand-in for the rather obvious, is a fast-food chain non-specific to any particular anime (the chain has made appearances from [[Inuyasha]] to the American-produced [[Megas XLR]]). Much like the above immediate example, anime "Brand X" brands are often created simply by switching or reversing a letter from their real-world counterparts ("Somy" and "Parasonic" have been known to pop up from time to time in various animes).
** WcDonalds' most recent appearance, as of early August 2008, is in the new [[Rumiko Takahashi]] short anime ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf953nWYSlA It's A Rumic World]'', where it appears in its rarely seen fully spelled out form.
** The upside down golden arches also appear in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in
** ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', however, has "McDaniels" hamburgers, complete with clown mascot. Since both of these are Universal Century shows, we have to assume that McDaniels and Wonderland Burger exist in the same universe and are competitors.
** It's even made an appearance in Japanese porn, as an elaborate restaurant set with obsessively detailed uniforms for the young ladies involved to wear (or not wear, as the case may be).
* ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' had Haruka excited to get a "PDS" or "Portable Dream Station". The visual representation made it some sort of crossbreed between a PSP and a DS.
* The first ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' anime has Asakura using the "Bagle" search engine.
* In ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* In ''[[Diamond Daydreams]]'' Karin accesses the internet with her "Aivo" laptop.
* Averted in ''[[Kannagi]]''. "[[Gratuitous English|It's a Sony]]", indeed.
* ''[[Minami
* ''[[Skip Beat
* The anime ''[[Prince of Tennis]]'' had the main character drinking Ponta, though in the original manga it was actually Fanta.
* ''[[Gravitation]]'' has Zenny's Restaurant. Like Denny's but more Zen.
* ''[[
* In the third ''[[Angelique]]'' OVA, there is a product logo that reads as "SQNY" ...but only if you are well-versed in the series' stylistic font which makes you wonder if this was just a dorky [[Easter Egg]].
* ''[[The Sky Crawlers]]'' features such products as Pops-Cola and Treasure soft drinks (with logos that resemble Coca-Cola and Pepsi respectively), Green Label beer and Leopard cars.
* ''[[Initial D]]'' had "Danrep", "Nisno", and the famous "TORENO" (which later became Trueno after they got the license)
* ''[[Lovely Complex]]'' has Koizumi's home console "Blay Ztation 2", where she plays her visual novels.
* The U.S. [[Adult Swim]] release of [[Code Geass]] censored out the Pizza Hut logos that were used as [[Product Placement]] in the Japanese version. Online rumor has it that the U.S. branch of Pizza Hut didn't want to continue the product placement because "[[Memetic Mutation|it's a show about terrorism.]]" Cheese-Kun, the Japanese Pizza Hut mascot, was kept uncensored.
* While later installments, such as the ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion|Rebuild]]'' movies, are more likely to use actual product placement, the original ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' series used this all over the place; for instance, Asuka's game console of choice was marked [[Sega|"SECA"]].
* ''[[Chaos
* Thoroughly averted in ''[[Bakuon!!]]'' Every trademark that could be there, is there, right down to helmets, convenience stores and canned beverages. And the Amazon.co.jp shipping boxes in the club room.
== Comic Books ==
* Parody product and magazine names abound in the comic strip ''[[FoxTrot]]''.▼
** There's a strip where the brand name on a bag of chips changed in every panel.▼
* [[The DCU]] has lots of these, some of which only appear in one story (or in stories by one writer), while others get taken up across the board. The cola brands Soder and Zesti have both had stories ''focused'' on them.
** Soder also appeared in the [[Diniverse]] [[Superman]] series as a [[Continuity Nod|nod to the DCU]].
** Big Belly Burger<ref>who, judging from its mascot, is based on the California chain [
** [[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]] featured another burger joint called "Bucket Burger", which was also rife with parody(for example, almost everyone in the restaurant except for the title character and his buddy are obese slobs).
** The DCU's leading current events magazine is named "Newstime".
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*** One or two issues of ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' reference Barbara Gordon and other characters bemoaning the ineffectiveness of the Curtains 98 operating system.
** Originally averted with the [[Martian Manhunter]]'s fondness for Oreos. Once it turned out he was literally addicted to them, they suddenly became "Chocos".
* The ''[[
* In the comic strip ''[[Bloom County]]'', Oliver Wendell Jones's Banana Junior 6000 computer bore a suspicious, if bright yellow, similarity to the original Macintosh. Except, of course, for its self-awareness, feet and [[AI Is a Crapshoot|propensity for troublemaking]].▼
▲* The [[Comicbooks/Spider Man|Spider-Man]] special "Skating on Thin Ice" features a [[Covers Always Lie|cover]] where a group of young kids finds Spider-Man's secret stash of Beer-brand beer and Cigarettes-brand cigarettes, as well as a vial, syringe, and bottle of prescription tablets.
* [[Kurt Busiek]]'s ''[[Astro City]]'' has "Beautie" not "Barbie" dolls. Then, there's the superheroine Beautie. {{spoiler|What else would a girl [[Gadgeteer Genius]] make?}}
** Don't forget the very popular "Beefy Bob's" burger joints, good enough for superheroes on a low-profile date. The city also has an ample supply of "Astro-Mart" convenience stores.
* Almost everything in ''[[Watchmen (
* In Mark Tatulli's comic strip ''[[Heart of the City]]'', the title character often plays with "Karlie and Ben" dolls.▼
* A ''[[
▲* Almost everything in ''[[Watchmen (Comic Book)|Watchmen]]'' is created by Veidt Enterprises or some sub-company. Of course, {{spoiler|there is a more sinister reason behind this: the sales of these products help finance Adrian Veidt's plot}}.
* Loch Lomond whisky (Captain Haddock's favorite brand) in the ''[[Tintin
▲* A ''[[Disney Adventures (Magazine)|Disney Adventures]]'' comic involved ''[[Doug]]'' buying a "Brandexx" jacket, which becomes popular for a while until someone else starts wearing "Branday" which then becomes popular at "Brandexx"'s expense.
* Hilariously parodied in a French comic, ''Contes à dormir debout''. A father is telling an updated version of "[[Aladdin (
▲* Loch Lomond whisky (Captain Haddock's favorite brand) in the ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' comics. (When ''The Black Island'' was redrawn in color, Loch Lomond replaced what was Johnnie Walker in the black-and-white version.)
▲* Hilariously parodied in a French comic, ''Contes à dormir debout''. A father is telling an updated version of "[[Aladdin (Literature)|Aladdin]]" to his daughter:
'''Daughter:''' "A famous brand of Swedish furnitures"? Are you calling it like that because you can't say any names?
▲{{quote| '''Father:''' A package fell off a truck from a famous brand of Swedish furnitures.<br />
▲'''Daughter:''' "A famous brand of Swedish furnitures"? Are you calling it like that because you can't say any names?<br />
'''Father:''' Of course not! Everyone speaks like that. Now, let me have a glass of this cola drink... }}
* ''[[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]'' is full of
* [[Sam
* [[Archie Comics]] can't say "Lucky Charms" and it ruins the joke, as referenced by the [[Comics Curmudgeon]]: [http://joshreads.com/?p=2225\]▼
== Film ==
* [[The View Askewniverse]] has "Nails" cigarettes, "Chewlies" gum, and the entire Mooby corporate empire.
* [[Quentin Tarantino]] includes not only discontinued products, but
* Parodied in ''Coming to America'': Cleo's restaurant "McDowell's" seems like one of these, but it turns out that McDonald's ''also'' exists in the movie's universe, and they're desperately trying to build a case against him.
* In ''[[Repo Man]]'', every single consumer good is in plain white packaging with the name of the item on the front -- "Beer", "Potato Chips", etc. Bear in mind, however, that this film was made in the blessedly short heyday of "generic" products; witness the protagonist opening a can of "FOOD"
** The Tesco comment above is in regards to "store brand" products, which are quite common in the States and do indeed declare their literal contents in large print (with the logo of the store or affiliated brand much smaller).
*** As illustrated on [
** The film ''[[Return of the Killer Tomatoes]]'' took this gag one step further: at the start, the characters all use the relentlessly generic items, until about halfway through when the film's "director" suddenly [[No Fourth Wall|appears on-scene]] and announces that they don't have enough money to finish the flick, so they're selling product placements. From then on, the placements become ever-more numerous, overt and obnoxious. During a lengthy spiel for some Californian motorcycle dealership, the hero finally breaks down and asks the director if they have enough money to finish the thing. Pan over to a shot of the director partying down with hookers, booze, etc. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Go get 'em guys.."
* In the 1989 film ''Batman'', the Joker announces his lethal tampering with Gotham City cosmetics with a mock commercial. Walking up to a living bound and gagged victim (a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen reads ''"Not An Actor"''), he exclaims, "Uh-oh! He don't look happy. He's been using Brand X!" (''"Oh No!"'') Then he walks to a corpse with a hideous Joker grin and says, "But with new Joker Brand, I get a grin, again and again!"
* The movie ''[[Small Soldiers]]'' shows that the main character's younger sister collects "Gwendy" fashion dolls. They are later recruited and animated as cannon fodder by the sentient action figures, after a request to go on leave with the plastic beauties is shot down.
* [[Roger Ebert]] on ''[[The Lonely Lady]]'':
{{quote|
* [[Two Words: Obvious Trope|Four words]]: [[Army of Darkness|Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.]]
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' couldn't get the rights to blow up an (original) [[G.I. Joe]] action figure, so they used "Combat Carl" instead.
** However, they otherwise avert it: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Ken, Barbie, Slinky, [[The Cameo|and]] [[My Neighbor Totoro|Totoro]] (I think I may be missing some) were all used with permission of the respective copyright owners, as acknowledged at the end of the credits of each film.
*** Zig-Zagged with Barbie; for the first movie, Mattel refused to license the character to Pixar, and the script was written without her. Needless to say, they offered no opposition when Pixar approached them for the second film.
* ''[[How High]]'' has BUFU<ref>A play on the "FUBU" clothing line</ref> -- "By Us, Fuck You!"
* The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' and ''Ghostbusters: The Video Game'' might count, but he might not.
* ''[[Cloverfield]]'' has the soft drink "Slusho", which was also used in its [[Viral Marketing]] campaign. As a [[Shout
* The 2000 remake of ''[[Bedazzled]]'' features the "Diablos" pro basketball team.
* ''[[Airplane!]]'' has a flashback with a stand in for Tupperware called Supperware.
== Literature ==
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, Roland and his companions from Earth find themselves from time to time in parallel versions of Earth distinguishable only by the fact that the popular brand names of consumer products are different (Nozz-a-La Cola, Shinnaro cameras, Takuro automobiles, etc.)
** Consistently mentioned in a few of his other works (''The Stand'' and ''Kingdom Hospital'', for example) for the sake of [[The Verse]].
* In ''The Kraken Wakes'' by [[John Wyndham]], the main character works for the ''E''BC (English Broadcasting Company). It gets extensively [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]
* In Orwell's ''How the Poor Die'', he names the hospital at which he was treated "Hôpital X." According to [[The Other Wiki]], the Hospital was "the Hôpital Cochin."
** Likewise in his book "Down and Out in Paris and London", Orwell worked as a dishwasher at the "Hôtel X." This was the Hôtel de Crillon.
* Several in [[Sarah Dessen]]'s novels, including Ume.com (Facebook) and Gas/Gro (7/11 or QT). The Facebook imitator even has a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Mark Zuckerberg (i.e. a nerdy guy who started the site in college).
* ''Don't Get Taken Every Time: The Ultimate Guide to Buying Or Leasing a Car'' by Remar Sutton, a book warning consumers of various common, questionable high-pressure auto dealership sales tactics, uses the fictional dealership chain "America's Family Friend" as the example villain of the story. The CYA disclaimer: "America's Family Friend Inc., and other fictional businesses and Web sites in the narrative sections of this book are all registered on the Web to the author."
* ''[[
* [[The Berenstain Bears]] does this with names like E-Bear (for Ebay) and Pawbook (for Facebook).
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'': In the episode "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor," where the Bradys are chosen to star in a television commercial for the laundry detergent Safe, all the soap names are "Brand X." Besides Safe, other detergents the Bradys have used (to varying levels of success) included Champ the Dirt Fighter, Clear & Bright, Help and their current detergent, Best. In the wind-up segment, the Bradys are given – as a consolation for their work – dozens of crates containing Safe.
** One of Robert Reed's points in his negative critique of this episode was that the use of the "soap names" – which Carol names off, in discussing with Mike on whether to star in the commercial – were clichéd (or in Reed's words, an "obvious writer's technique").
** In the later episode "Law & Disorder" (aired a season later), Bobby can be seen dumping a whole box of Safe into the washing machine. (He was trying to wash his good suit after dirtying it while trespassing in an abandoned house to rescue a classmate's kitten.)
* When the ''[[
** One of the few times they ever break from this practice is in the "Diet Coke and Mentos" testing, using the name of both soda and candy directly, in part because everyone in the world knows the phenomenon by that name and calling it the "Diet Soda and Candy" episode would have seemed patently absurd. The decision seems to have been made only during post-production, however; while graphics and the narrator use the brand names often, anyone actually on-camera always says "diet soda" or "candy" and all the labels are still taken off.
** In addition, certain chemicals mentioned in narration are censored due to fears the audience will try to recreate the experiments at home; instead of "bleep", the audience hears a random animal noise. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] entertainingly in at least one episode:
{{quote|
'''Narrator:''' When you add donkey to rooster you get a violent reaction. }}
*** [[Double Entendre|"Donkey and rooster"? "Violent reaction"?]]
** One specific example involves Adam holding up two bottles of chemicals for the camera,
{{quote|
*** In the above examples the chemicals being mixed tend to be components of explosives. Besides being particularly [[Don't Try This At Home|dangerous to try at home]] there are probably federal and local laws governing/forbidding their use and procurement without licences.
*** More like they are very easy to come by. Blur and blur are rust and powdered aluminum.
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** For the first several seasons, the manufacturer logos on the regular M5 Industries fleet vehicles were unobscured. The big GMC box truck even had a former owner's company name plainly visible (the vinyl letter decals had been removed, the sticky residue hadn't and was gray with grime. Must've driven Jamie up the wall.)
** What about the Home Depot orange buckets used in multiple episodes? Sure the logos might be out of focus, but anyone who has seen one of those buckets in a store will recognize them immediately.
* The kids' magazine programme ''[[Blue Peter]]'' used to have a craft feature which usually required cereal boxes, empty drinks bottles and so forth... all with the names obscured, because the BBC, being publicly funded, didn't allow any commercial product placement. Sometimes it was patently obvious what the obscured brand
* Another instance of the BBC not allowing product placement was duly mocked in an episode of ''[[Top Gear]]'', where the three presenters (and The Stig) participate in a 24-hour endurance race in their modified BMW. As a final touch, they wanted to put product placements all over their car, but BBC regulations prevented them from doing
* The BBC's policy was mercilessly spoofed on at least one episode of [[Have I Got News for You]]:
{{quote|
'''Paul Merton:''' Is Irish stout some kind of relation to Guinness?
'''Ian Hislop:''' The BBC frowns on product placement.
'''Guest:''' What's that can of Pringles doing on there then? (points at the Wheel of News, which sure enough has a Pringles can on it)
'''Merton:''' Maybe he'll refer to them as one of Britain's most popular concave crisps. }}
** Another example of this was on arts and crafts show, [[Make Shift]]. One of the presenters was making some kind of food product, using "a chocolatey caramel nougat bar". Or a Mars bar to the rest of the world.
* ''[[I Bet You Will]]'' (reality show dare on MTV) uses "I Bet You Will" paint, etc.
* When characters on '80s American sitcoms read magazines, the back cover frequently had an ad for "Walt's Wintergreen" gum, which bore a resemblance to Wrigley's Spearmint ads of the time.
* ''[[
** [[Truth in Television]]: in real life, government/military supplies and rations (as well as supplies and rations from some non-profit or school groups) follow this convention (this is actually where ''Lost'' got the idea in the first place) though there are notable exceptions; M&Ms (specifically invented for military rations) and other durable commercially available foods will be supplied in their commercially available packaging.
** Oddly, in the flashbacks and in other aspects of the show, where there is ample chance for product placement, there is none. Hurley, who has a self-confessed food addiction, never eats Brand Name Food. It's always some made up brand. Is this done on purpose? Hmmm...the trees are shaking.
* Virtually all of the products in ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'', from Kreb of the Loom underwear to the family's Krebolet, are made by KrebStar.
* Used in ''[[
* And then of course you have Binford tools, the official tools of ''Tool Time'' on ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]''.
** [[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]] also did this with some non-tool products in the background, such as "Nickers" and "Runch" candy bars.
** In a clever homage, you can spot a Binford Tools toolbox in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''.
*** And a rather subtle joke about it in ''[[
{{quote|
* The ''[[Chef At Home]]'' seems to be a casualty of this. All of his ingredients are in glass jars, and he refers to them as such.
** Alton Brown on ''[[Good Eats]]'' also used "That drink powder" in an episode about pickles. He had a guy in a red glass burst through a wall in order to "tell" us what it was. Alton then remarked "Aren't you supposed to be a pitcher?"
*** Alton Brown is also a big fan of Brand X and "Greeking" (as the process is more formally called). In a "behind the scenes" episode of ''[[Good Eats]]'' he explains the process behind "Greeking." That said, it's always obvious what grocery store he's shopping at (either Kroger, Publix, or Harry's/Whole Foods, depending on how old the episode is), and episodes before season 5 don't bother with the greeking.
**** [[Cooking Show
*** Likewise, ''Food Network Challenge'' frequently has challengers working with "puffed cereal treats". Rice Krispies didn't even jump on the bandwagon when they broke a world record sculpting with the stuff.
* Notably subverted in ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' when characters were shown drinking "Faygo" brand cola, which really exists but is hard to find outside the upper Midwest.
** Actually, I live in Kentucky and Faygo brand sodas are easily found around here.
*** It's within the cachement area: Faygo is a [[Motor City|Detroit]]-based brand. This is why it made sense for the characters to drink it on ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'': the show is set in suburban Detroit, and the stuff is fairly popular in the area (i.e. it's [[Local Color]]).
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. House, {{spoiler|while being hypnotized by Chase}}, expresses his dislike for "'Beer' brand beer" when presented with a row of generic bottles. There are also bottles of "Liquor" brand liquor. (This could be interpreted more as a statement about which details people tend to remember. He didn't care which alcohol it was, so he didn't remember it as a specific brand.)
{{quote|
** Of course, he didn't remember much else either, as everybody was a [[The Faceless|faceless]].
* ''[[The Middleman]]'' uses [[Captain Ersatz]] of recognizable products ''and'' gives them names that are different but still similar enough to invoke familiarity with the actual product they're spoofing or implying.
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** The Tangiers was originally created for the gangster film ''[[Casino]]'' as a stand-in for The Sands (though unlike its real world equivalent, the Tangiers was demolished in the wake of the mob trials, which precludes the possibility of any continuity with ''CSI''). What's strange, though is that ''CSI'' has also mentioned The Sands on occasion, and also the Rampart (although the fictional Rampart was demolished in season 7, while its real life counterpart still stands.)
* This was subverted in an 80s science/maths TV series (''How 2?'') starring Carol Vordermann, which regularly featured jars of "chocolate beans." On one occasion, it was commented: "We won't name [the product] as we've already given Smarties too much free advertising".
* In addition to the Pear computers (see the Apple section above), ''[[Zoey 101]]'' and ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' also greeked laptop computers using stickers with the logos of their respective fictional schools.
* [[Chuck]] works at "Buy More" (Best Buy), who is in competition with "Large Mart" (Walmart).
** Large Mart also has a strong resemblance to Costco.
** ''Chuck'' also debadges non-Toyota cars.
* Cans of soda on ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' are clearly designed to mimic real brands, but with HD one can clearly see that they are drinking "Diet Cola" (styled like the Diet Coke logo), "Z-un" (styled like the 7-Up logo), and a brand with literally no name but a perfect copy of Sprite's interlocking-fruits symbol.
* The BBC's policy is actually quite inconsistent. For every instance of a
* ''[[Friends]]''. Joey apparently enjoys "Nickers Bars".
** And Ross uses Uberweiss laundry detergent.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "The Screwfly Solution" had plenty of examples, like "East Coast Airlines" and "Flazzle Cola" (in a red can, no less), and in the shop scenes they make sure to keep the camera zoomed out (though a Budweiser sign comes up in the edge of the shot, so they forgot at least one thing). They also have nameless "Kidney Beans" cans and an internet search engine with no marker at all.
* ''[[Law
** Though this trope doesn't apply when referring to their
{{quote|
** Of course there are two things consistent about the L&O universe; that the equivalent of the ''Post'' is the ''Ledger'' (which was also the paper in the short-lived newsbiz [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Deadline]]''), while the all-encompassing New York University/Columbia University campus is known as Hudson University.
** Averted in the 2010 [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Law
* Nearly completely averted in ''[[Survivors (TV series)|Survivors]]''. Hung looter in a Netto? Check. Decomposing corpse in McDonald's? Check.
* ''[[Mad Men]]'' spectacularly averts this. Sterling Cooper may be fictional, but they've done stuff or tried to do stuff for (And yes, many of these clients [[Product Placement|paid handsomely to be on the show]]):
** Pampers
**
** American Airlines, an attempted grab for their contract of that airline, which is trying to get good publicity back after the [
** Mohawk Airlines, who are bumped off the client list for the American Airlines attempt.
** Bacardi
** The American Cancer Society, after {{spoiler|Don Draper's [[Indy Ploy|desperate grab]] after losing Lucky Strike}}
** Heineken
** Also worth mentioning is that the show isn't averse to ''actual'' [[Product Placement]]: a bottle of Smirnoff has crept its way into the series as a semi-permanent fixture in Roger Sterling's new office.
** DVD commentary reveals that the production team always uses period-accurate real-world alcohol bottles, with one exception: A real brand is never used in a drinking-and-driving situation. [[Mad Men]] being [[Mad Men]], there are a lot of these.
* Odd example on ''[[Peep Show]]''
** It may be that mentioning the semi-genericised Lemsip is acceptable, but that showing Lemsip-brand Lemsip was undue prominence. In some countries, there's a rule against showing a product and mentioning its name at the same time. So there's no problem if they're mentioning Lemsip, they just have to obscure it.
* Yet more BBC, in ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]'' many of the candidates have worked for major companies in the past, but it is described as stuff like "developing markets for a major international coffee company."
* The way they rebranded products on ''Full House'' was amusing (Mountain Do, Shesta Cola, Sarf Color-Safe Bleach, Ail Laundry Detergent, to name but a few).
* In early episodes of the new ''[[
** Additionally, Rose works for the fictional department store 'Henricks.'
* In the episode "Doppelgänger" of ''[[
* A [[Justified Trope]] within the context of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''. Due to legal reasons, witches cannot conjure up brand name products; trying so only results in
* On ''[[
** "Cola", in an orange-red can, also appears numerous times in Community.
* French humorists "les nuls" made a fake ad where X stands for X-rated. Brand X washing powder shows sex positions on its packaging.
* Finder-Spyder is a stand-in for Google in shows such as ''[[CSI]]'', ''[[Dexter]]'', ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' and ''[[Prison Break]]''
* Gannon Car Rentals features in ''[[Lost]]'' and ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''.
* On ''[[
* In a variation, when ''[[Life After People]]'' did an episode on food, they specifically address the [[Urban Legend]] that "this cream-filled snack cake" would remain edible for thousands of years. Presumably the makers of Twinkies didn't want their product associated with images of decaying meat or roaches and rats taking over abandoned supermarkets, as the program dutifully avoids naming "this snack cake" or showing its label.
* ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' has an episode near the start of the second season where a frisbee is referred to as a "plastic flying disk". Possibly a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]], since the phrase is gratuitously awkward compared to several they could have used instead.
* ''[[Spicks and Specks]]'' blurred out the branding of a Mr. Whippy icecream van when it was playing Greensleeves. [[The ABC]] prohibits product placement, but it's been the target of [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] every now and then.
* In this clip of ''[[
* In the US ''[[Queer
* Non-Canadian ''[[Degrassi]]'' viewers can almost make a game out of betting on what's
* ''[[Are You Being Served?]]'' had Grace Brothers, a parodic stand-in for Harrods.
* Starting in Season 2, ''[[Glee]]'' introduced a coffee shop, possibly a chain, called the Lima Bean as a date location for Kurt and Blaine. It's both a reference to the place where the show is set (and its correct pronunciation) and a pretty obvious stand-in for Starbucks.
* When licensed NASCAR products are released to mass retail, the logos of beer companies are replaced with generic logos including the driver's name, due to U.S. law prohibiting the advertising of alcohol to minors. This is not the case with high-end "adult collectibles," however.▼
** There's a ''cigarette lighter'' shaped like Rusty Wallace's Miller Lite car with the brewery's logo replaced by his first name.▼
** The high-end collectible market isn't immune to cigarette advertisement restrictions though -- the L&M logos are missing from some models.▼
** When Mark Martin's sponsorship was switched to Viagra, the notice "Ages 21 and up" on the Revell model box where the "tahrs and awl"-sponsored-car kits had "Ages 10 and up". If you need Viagra before 21, you're probably worried about things other than family-unfriendly logos...▼
▲* There is a Listerine commercial that actually says that "people prefer it two-to-one over the leading brand." To be fair, this can be interpreted charitably to mean "the leading brand made by a competitor." But if it's possible for "the leading brand" to mean this, then that might be the answer to the question, "Why isn't your brand the leading brand?" Maybe it sometimes is the leading brand!
▲** One way ads get around this dilemma is to say "the next leading brand".
== Music ==
* The original version "Lola" by the Kinks features the line "where you drink champagne and it tastes just like ''Coca Cola''," which had to be edited to "cherry cola" for radio release in the UK due to laws about [{Product Placement]]; American radio seems to play both versions though.
* The song "Fabulous" from ''[[High School Musical 2]]'' originally contained the lines, "Fetch me my [[Jimmy Choo]] flip flops/Where is my pink Prada tote?/I need my Tiffany hair band/Then I can go for a float". In the video game "[[Sing It]]", "[[Jimmy Choo]]" became... eh, something... else?, "Prada" became "leather", and "Tiffany" became "sparkly".
* Pink Floyd's "It Would Be So Nice" originally contained the line "Have you ever read the Evening Standard?" As this was the name of a legitimate English newspaper, they were forced to re-record the line with the fictitious 'Daily Standard.'
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* [[Archie Comics]] can't say "Lucky Charms" and it ruins the joke, as referenced by the [[Comics Curmudgeon]]: [http://joshreads.com/?p=2225\]
* ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'' has "Bounders Books and Muzak" instead of Borders Books and Music, etc.
** Interesting in that "Muzak" is itself the name of [
▲* Parody product and magazine names abound in the comic strip ''[[FoxTrot]]''.
▲** There's a strip where the brand name on a bag of chips changed in every panel.
▲* In the comic strip ''[[Bloom County]]'', Oliver Wendell Jones's Banana Junior 6000 computer bore a suspicious, if bright yellow, similarity to the original Macintosh. Except, of course, for its self-awareness, feet and [[
▲* In Mark Tatulli's comic strip ''[[Heart of the City]]'', the title character often plays with "Karlie and Ben" dolls.
== Radio ==
* Several [[The BBC|BBC]] Radio 1 DJs, as a result of the BBC not allowing product placement, often say things like "generic [[
* Radio comedians [[Hudson and Landry]] often made use of "Ajax" companies, like Ajax Airlines or Ajax Mortuary.
== Toys ==
* [[LEGO]] has a small few recurring instances of this trope, most prominently the Octan petrol company, whose branding was pretty much everywhere in [[LEGO City]] and racing games and sets up until 2001, and still crops up on occasion. LEGO also averts it in that they regularly produce licenced promotional sets based on real vehicles used by real companies, the most commonly recurring being Shell and Maersk.
** LEGO ''used'' to make regular sets featuring Shell (or Exxon in the United States, from the late 1970s to about 1985-86 when Shell sets became available stateside). Back when they made HO-scaled vehicles, they included Shell and Esso branded vehicles.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Ratchet and Clank|Ratchet: Deadlocked]]'', one of the randomly generated bits of [[Witty Banter]] from announcers Dallas and Juanita explicitly mentions "Brand X Gelatin".
* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations'' used "Coldkiller X" as a brand of medicine for cold.
** Which actually would seem to be a case of [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]], since it was translated from ''Kazegoroshi Z''.
* Thirsty for some Cielo Mist? Or perhaps a One-Up? ''[[Persona 3]]'' has 'em for the low, low cost of 120 yen!
** ''Persona 3'' was ''filled'' with them, Every vending machine had some type of American drink just to show how well Atlus actually translates the games. Some of the most memorable ones were : (Dr. Salt: Salty soda. Popular, but an acquired taste.) (Mad Bull: The most caffeinated drink available.) (Starvicks: Famous coffee, mixed with cough syrup.) (Fountain Dew: A disturbingly yellow soft drink.)
* The painkillers in ''[[Max Payne (
* A truly vast number of freeware
** However in La-Mulana's case it is actually [[Lampshade Hanging|an intentional parody]].
* The Medic/Assault's first aid box in ''Battlefield 2142'' contains painkillers named "Dicepirin", among other things.
** The game was developed by DICE.
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series has Brand X in
** [[Fridge Brilliance|So that's why it offers +25% to damage resistance!]]
* ''[[
** And let's not forget the dreaded Wren Insurance building!
* ''[[The Sims]]'', by proxy, is also full of this by way of the brand names of all buyable items. This actually gets averted down the line, thanks to a tie-in deal with [https://web.archive.org/web/20120531134611/http://thesims2.ea.com/about/sp8_index.php IKEA].
*** As an added note, using the random Sim generater in the Sims 2 Debug mode will cough up Sims with
* ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'' has Vestal Gigastore, a riff on Virgin Megastore. And if you know what a Vestal Virgin is, and you've played to the end of the game, you know what a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] that is.
** There are also McBurger and Queen Burger restaurants about town.
* ''[[Monday Night Combat]]'' is positively saturated with
{{quote|
* The opening [[Cutscene]] of ''[[Jurassic Park]]: Trespasser'' shows John Hammond on the cover of a magazine named "Science America".
* ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' features "Asthma" brand inhalers, among other things.
* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games are littered with these, including such things as Sprunk soda and [[Yellow Snow|Pißwasser beer]].
== Web Animation ==
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** Notable Brand Xs include the Cold Ones series of beers; especially the Coldson Lite, who looks like a can of Coors Lite, yet whose name resembles Molson. Interestingly, Molson and Coors have since announced that they were merging together.
** This is doubly subverted with the Tandy computers. Tandy was a real brand, once, but Strong Bad's "Tandy 400" computer resembles nothing ever produced by it. Furthermore, its logo is a multicolored star with a bite taken out of it. In case the parody wasn't obvious yet, this same logo is later seen on obvious Macintosh lookalikes.
** But the exceptions can be pretty blatant. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131031223632/http://www.homestarrunner.com/floatparade.html Let's sing a song of Pennzoil!]"
*** ...and sometimes it's part of the joke: In sbemail "caffeine", Strong Bad gets Strong Sad on a caffeine rush by "drop[ping] a couple of heaping spoonfuls of Sanka into [his] orange juice." Sanka is, of course, well-noted for being a decaffeinated coffee.
== Web Comics ==
* Averted in ''[[Penny Arcade]]'', where main characters Gabe and Tycho talk about the latest real-life video games constantly.
* ''[[Misfile]]'' has beer bottles and cans labeled "BEER". The author has stated that he doesn't drink and didn't want to depict any particular brand.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120521075941/http://www.danspulpit.com/God_does_not_believe_in_atheists.html This heavily narmed-up comic strip by Dan Nuckols] has a particularly charming example in which a character is seen reading pornography, but the author doesn't care to name the pornographic publication, nor is he comfortable depicting anything remotely suggestive on the cover. The result is a dull brown magazine with "PORN" written on it in big black letters.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick
** In strip 711, Haley buys from cosmetics company Aton (A parody of Avon).
* Apparently there is a place on earth where you can buy [https://web.archive.org/web/20150224024007/http://theworldisyours.smackjeeves.com/comics/1089945/beer-can/ "Beer Can" brand beer].
* In ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' makes use of the "Pear Computer" Brand name in episode: "Hitman".
* "World background" products include Cuckoo Cola from ''[[Darkwing Duck (
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has, in addition to its thinly veiled celebrity archetypes, a slew of in-world brands: Mexican fast-food establishment Bueno Nacho, big-box retailer Smarty-Mart, fashion boutique and clothing line Club Banana, and so forth.
* Just about everything in the 90s Australian cartoon ''[[Lil Elvis Jones and The Truckstoppers]]'' is 'Junk' brand, from cola and a clear Vegemite analogue, to the only television station shown. 'Junk Corporation' just ''happens'' to be owned by the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] villain, W.C. Moore.
* The makers of the ''[[Over the Hedge (
* In the world of ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', almost every single store or service is named after a real world extreme metal band, if not after Dethklok itself. Thus, Finntroll Groceries, Dimmu Burger (a pun on Dimmu Borgir), a restaurant called "Burzum's", the Gorgoroth hardware store, etc. etc.
* ''[[Futurama]]'' has Slurm soft drink, which is central to the episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory". Also, Lightspeed Briefs and Mom's Old-Fashioned Robot Oil. It also uses parody brands, such as Admiral Crunch and Archduke Chocula on "The Series Has Landed" and Sonya speakers on "Amazon Women in the Mood".
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** Throughout the series are mentions of a fast food place called [[Mc Meaty]]'s.
** Don't forget Gaz's favorite place Bloaty's Pizza Hog. It's like a negative Chuckie Cheese.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** Both of which, interestingly, became [[Defictionalization|real brands]] during the run of [[The Simpsons Movie
** They [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this in a conversation between the cop, Lou, and Chief Wiggum which was also a parody of the "royal with cheese" scene in ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''. Lou mentioned eating at a McDonald's in Shelbyville, but Wiggum had never heard of it, despite there being 2000 locations in the state.
** Lampshaded again in a another episode where it turned out Krusty was paying the mob to keep other fast food chains out of Springfield.
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** In a different episode, Lisa yearns for trendy electronic devices from electronics company Mapple, run by Steve Mobs. In the beginning of the episode, she gets a discarded myPod from Krusty.
* "MegaLoMart", a parody of Walmart and to a lesser degree Sams and CostCo, from ''[[King of the Hill]]''.
* The [[DCAU]] uses Soder as its brand of...well, soda. Most prevalent in [[Superman:
** Not to mention the Flash's "Lightspeed Energy Bars". You get a big boost of flavor in every bite!
* [[Cartoon Network]] has its Whisbees.
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** The most prominent brand name in the series was probably the "Polarock" instant camera ([[Bamboo Technology|a bird inside the camera using its beak to chisel jackhammer-style the "photograph" image into a stone slab in 60 seconds]]).
* ''Pretendo'' seemed to be a common video game console amongst animated characters. It appears in episodes of ''[[Doug]]'' and ''[[Muppet Babies]]''.
* ''[[
** They also tend to bounce around between McBurgertown and [[McDonald's]] whenever they feel like it.
* ''[[The Critic]]'' has "Hair In A Can" and "Phlegm Fatale Cigarettes."
* ''[[The Mighty B!]]'''s Honeybees have unusual similarities to The Girl Scouts.
* One episode of ''[[Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats
* In ''[[Kick Buttowski]]'', the fastest way to internet fame goes through ''Rank of Awesome'' rather than ''[[YouTube]]''. Especially if you use [[Cute Kitten|cats]].
* [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner
* "Generic Cereal" [[Noodle Incident|made Dan's list of enemies]] in ''[[Dan Vs.]]''
* [[
== Other ==
* Pretty much the whole, if satiric, point of ''[http://www.wackypackages.com/ Wacky Packages]'' bubblegum.
* Morley brand cigarettes (frequently substituted for popular American brand [[May Contain Evil|Marlboro]]) have been used in both [[Film]], [[Television]], and a few [[Video Games]]. [[That Other Wiki]] has [
** Another reason to question if they're really as serious as they make themselves out to be.
* Similarly, Oceanic Airlines has been the most common choice of fictional airline since its first appearance in 1996. [[That Other Wiki]] article [
* Oaties cereal (a very obvious parody of Wheaties) is another example.
* Not quite a brand, but fictitious [[Alphabet News Network]] counterparts to CNN appear under various approximate abbreviations (ZNN, CNC, NNN, etc) in countless TV series, films, and other formats.
▲* When licensed NASCAR products are released to mass retail, the logos of beer companies are replaced with generic logos including the driver's name, due to U.S. law prohibiting the advertising of alcohol to minors. This is not the case with high-end "adult collectibles," however.
▲** There's a ''cigarette lighter'' shaped like Rusty Wallace's Miller Lite car with the brewery's logo replaced by his first name.
▲** The high-end collectible market isn't immune to cigarette advertisement restrictions
▲** When Mark Martin's sponsorship was switched to Viagra, the notice "Ages 21 and up" on the Revell model box where the "tahrs and awl"-sponsored-car kits had "Ages 10 and up". If you need Viagra before 21, you're probably worried about things other than family-unfriendly logos...
==
* In [[The Eighties]], "Generic" products distinguished by plain white labels and simple black or dark blue lettering were commonly available for a brief time; and were popular due to their lower cost. Some of these were actual name-brand products sold under what the industry terms "white-label" packaging. (Example: generic "Beer", as see in ''[[Repo Man]]'', was typically Lucky Lager.) The minimalist look was replaced later in the decade by "store brand" product packaging.
** Canadian grocery chain Loblaws® has a store brand known as ''No Name®'' to this very day. The brand, which débuted in The Seventies, typically presents products in otherwise-blank bright yellow packaging with plain black type – the pretext being, presumably, that the consumer isn't paying for the name or the packaging. And yes, ''No Name[[Tradesnark™|™]]'' [https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark?id=0469972&lang=eng holds] [https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark?id=0525342&lang=eng multiple] [https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark?id=0640916&lang=eng Canadian] [https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark?id=1599639&lang=eng trademark] [https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark?id=1712719&lang=eng registrations]™.
* For a short while, there ''was'' a pop group called Brand X.
* In the Czech Republic, in reaction to just about any advertisement for washing powders comparing their product with a "common washing powder", one company actually started making a washing powder of that name.
** Ditto for Russian washing powder with the same name, if it's not the same company.
* There are some generic store-brand beers that [https://web.archive.org/web/20131219092549/http://40ouncebeer.com/extrapicts/generic.jpg just have "beer" on the label.]
* There is also a brand of wine called "Cheap Red Wine", although it is meant as a gag (despite being a completely accurate description of the product).
* There is actually a drink ''called''
** [[A Worldwide Punomenon|You mean,]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|as in "Brand-Y"?]]
* Many companies have made knockoff biscuits that look like Oreos. Julie's Biscuits actually labels these as ''Stereos''.
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[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:Brand X]]
[[Category:
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