Brand X: Difference between revisions

* Loch Lomond whisky (Captain Haddock's favorite brand) in the ''[[Tintin]]'' 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 (novel)|Aladdin]]" to his daughter:

'''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 these -- Jhonen Vasquez seems to be fond of this trope, as it appears in ''[[Invader Zim]]'' as well. Taco Hell, the 24/7 with its Brain Freezies, the list goes on.

* 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]]'':

* [[Two Words: Obvious Trope|Four words]]: [[Army of Darkness|Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.]]

* ''[[Toy Story]]'' couldn't get the rights to blow up an (original) [[G.I. Joe]] action figure, so they used "Combat Carl" instead.

** 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:

'''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, with -- of course -- [[Pixelation|blurred labels]].

*** 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.

* 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 so -- so they made up their own, including such products as Peniston Oil and Larsen Biscuits (which appears as "Penis" and "Arse Biscuits" when the door is open).

* The BBC's policy was mercilessly spoofed on at least one episode of [[Have I Got News for You]]:

'''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.

** In a clever homage, you can spot a Binford Tools toolbox in ''[[Toy Story]]''.

*** And a rather subtle joke about it in ''[[Freefall]]'', [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff100/fv00035.htm when Sam is shown] holding a "BinGM" chainsaw.

* 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?"

*** 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.)

** 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.

* ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' loves this trope. Probably because many of its episodes are [[Ripped from the Headlines]].

** Though this trope doesn't apply when referring to their bankroller -- for instance, reporters will have NBC branded microphones, with anyone else being with unlikely-numbered news organizations such as Channel 23 or News 46. There was also an interesting exchange during a bust when mobsters were caught flat-footed watching TV:

** 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 & Order: LA|Law and Order LA]]'', where Facebook was name-dropped in the very first episode, while in previous episodes of the series generic substitutes like "Youspace" were used in its place.

** There are also McBurger and Queen Burger restaurants about town.

* ''[[Monday Night Combat]]'' is positively saturated with advertisments and endorsements for its wide variety of fake combat-related products and services.

* 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.