Brand X: Difference between revisions

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{{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 brand—or, in some cases, [[Pixellation|obscuring a real brand]] so that it can't be identified. Another technique is to make a lookalike label that doesn't show the actual brand name—for instance, a bright-red soft drink can inscribed, in white letters, "Cola" - or, if the animators want to be more subtle, "[[Bland-Name Product|Popsi]]".
 
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.