History BlandNameProduct / Literature

* Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' features the heroes using a UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}-like operating system developed in Finland, called... "Finux". Supposedly, this is because Neal knew a lot about the inner workings of Linux, but wanted to have a little bit more freedom on what was possible. This book also features the Electric Till Company (ETC) instead of NCR (National Cash Register).

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' gave us the "Burger Lord" chain. [[spoiler:Elvis works at one.]]

* In ''[[Literature/AboutTheBnaiBagels About the B'nai Bagels]]'', protagonist Mark keeps a copy of a ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''-like magazine under his mattress called ''Playgirl''. Another boy's mother actually gets him a subscription. Later editions changed it to ''Playboy''. (The book and ''Playgirl'' magazine were first published the same year, 1973; E.L. Konigsberg had no way of knowing that a real magazine of that name would exist.) [[note]] Pre-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious veiled reference to a well-known girlie magazine and hiding one under your bed says something about you. ''Post''-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious reference to the actual magazine of that name, and hiding one under your bed says something ''considerably different'' about you. (''Playgirl'' features naked men, as opposed to ''Playboy'''s naked women.) [[/note]]
* Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' features the heroes using a UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}-like operating system developed in Finland, called... "Finux". Supposedly, this is because Neal knew a lot about the inner workings of Linux, but wanted to have a little bit more freedom on what was possible. This book also features the Electric Till Company (ETC) instead of NCR (National Cash Register).
* ''Literature/AStudyInCharlotte'': The email addresses end with @dmail.com, an obvious stand-in for Google Mail.

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' gave us the "Burger Lord" chain. [[spoiler:Elvis works at one.]]
* Creator/ScottWesterfeld's novel ''Literature/SoYesterday'' not only censors out brandnames with asterisks but, as the entire plot deals with consumer culture, {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it by having characters refer to a certain brand as "the client" and the {{narrator}} explaining exactly why.

* ''Zombies For Zombies'' has dozens, such as [=PutriSystem=].
* ''The Daily Prophet'' of ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is totally not the [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]. [[BlatantLies Totally not.]]
* Creator/ChristopherBrookmyre's IntrepidReporter Jack Parlabane works for the Scottish broadsheet ''The Saltire'', and its sister paper ''Saltire on Sunday'', which are clearly ''The Scotsman'' and ''Scotland on Sunday''.

* Isabel Allende's ''City of the Beasts'' and ''The Kingdom of the Golden Dragon'' center around trips a teenage boy takes with his aunt, an intrepid correspondent for the noted magazine... International Geographic.

* ''Literature/TheUltraViolets'' is full of these, such as ''Smashface,'' the premiere social networking site, ''Furi,'' Cheri's helpful voiced assistant, built into her phone, and Iris's tablet, the ''iCan.''
* In the graphic novel of ''[[Literature/TheKaneChronicles The Red Pyramid]]'', Khufu eats "[=HappyOs=]," which was probably done because they actually show the box, whereas the original book merely mentions "Cheerios." The box, though, looks almost exactly like a regular box of Cheerios, right down to the stylized "G" that is the General Mills logo.
* In the ''Literature/ShadowOps'' book ''Fortress Frontier'', the search engine/free email site ''Yippee.com'' is used as a contact point for some of the protagonists.

* Don't be surprised if you start seeing shoddy ripoff of every popular brand ever known while visiting the neurologically parallel universe of ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}''. A parallel universe where Picosoft and Axar merged to form Spartan Soft, and where Gogool is actually spelled correctly.
* In ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'', a popular handheld video game device among cubs is the Game Bear.
* In ''Literature/VoidMoon'', Cassie Black robs a room at an Egyptian-themed Las Vegas casino called the Cleopatra. It's an obvious stand-in for the RealLife Luxor.
* In ''Literature/TheBalancedSword'', one character has a "[=LumiTainment=] Portable" gaming device, with a game called "[[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono Victory]]".

* The comic strip depicting the "snake in the fur coat" UL in ''The Big Book of Urban Legends'' takes place at J-Mart.
* In "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Creator/RobertAHeinlein, the title character at one point takes advantage of a rivalry between soft drink manufacturers "Moka-Coka" and "6+".

* ''Literature/{{Horrorstor}}'' is based around ghosts in a BlandNameProduct version of IKEA. IKEA actually also exists in the book, and it's commented on that even ''they'' think the rip-off is awful.
* The story "Literature/{{Parallels}}" by Creator/JenniHill in the Literature/SherlockHolmes AU collection ''[[Literature/TwoHundredAndTwentyOneBakerStreets Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets]]'' is about a teenage girl who writes AU Johnlock stories (yes, it's very meta). One of them is a crossover with the space opera ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Force]]'', in which Sherlock is a member of the famously logical Hephaestan race, and the villains are Krangons. ''Star Force'' is confirmed as a real show in-universe later, with a reference to [[Film/StarTrek2009 the new movies with all the lens-flare]].
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/KidStuff": Jan Prentiss submits stories to ''Farfetched Fantasy Fiction'' rather than ''Magazine/BeyondFantasyFiction'' (which is where this story first appeared).
* Most Literature/{{Discworld}} businesses have names that don't directly suggest any specific Roundworld counterpart, or do so very obliquely, but [[Creator/TerryPratchett Sir Terry]] sometimes used this for throwaway references, if he just needed to convey "the Discworld counterpart to..." quickly. For instance, in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', the ingredients of a Screaming Orgasm include Almonte and Wahlulu, standing in for Amaretto and Khalua.
* John Collier's "Evening Primrose" takes place at Bracey's, but also mentions actual department stores like Wanamaker's and Bloomingdale's.

* ''Literature/IJedi'': When the dual-phase modification on his lightsaber fails, Corran discovers the diamond he'd used for it was, in fact, a synthetic "Kubaz xurconia" that couldn't hold up under the strain of being a lightsaber focusing crystal.

* ''LightNovel/ModernVillainessItsNotEasyBuildingACorporateEmpireBeforeTheCrash'' has Lehthan Sisters, for Lehman Brothers.

* In the ''Literature/TommyAndTuppence'' collection ''Partners at Crime'', the couple sometimes have dinner at the Blitz Hotel, standing in for the Ritz.

* In ''Literature/{{Touch}},'' the card game that James and his friends play isn't named, though WordOfGod jokes that it's called ''[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Gather: The Magicking]].'' There's also the anime ''Spacefighter X,'' which (based on the space politics) seems to be based on ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' and its imitators.

* In ''About the B'nai Bagels'', protagonist Mark keeps a copy of ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''-like magazine under his mattress called ''Playgirl''. Another boy's mother actually gets him a subscription. Later editions changed it to ''Playboy''. (The book and ''Playgirl'' magazine were first published the same year, 1973; E.L. Konigsberg had no way of knowing that a real magazine of that name would exist.) [[note]] Pre-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious veiled reference to a well-known girlie magazine and hiding one under your bed says something about you. ''Post''-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious reference to the actual magazine of that name, and hiding one under your bed says something ''considerably different'' about you. (''Playgirl'' features naked men, as opposed to ''Playboy'''s naked women.) [[/note]]

* In ''Literature/OracleOfTao'', one of the characters are listing common cereals with incredibly generic names. She lists Harvest O's (Cheerios), Wheat Nets and Corn Nets (basically Chex), Generic Granola, and [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Oatmeal]](Quaker Oatmeal).

* Creator/PaulCornell's ''Literature/WildCards'' short stories "[[https://www.tor.com/2013/05/29/the-elephant-in-the-room/ The Elephant in the Room]]" and "[[https://www.wildcardsworld.com/i-have-no-voice-and-i-must-zoom-meeting/ I Have No Voice and I Must Zoom Meeting]]" feature a fast food restaurant called White Palace and an audio drama company called [[Creator/BigFinish Best Fiction]] respectively.

* The ''Literature/WildCards'' short story "[[https://www.wildcardsworld.com/i-have-no-voice-and-i-must-zoom-meeting/ I Have No Voice and I Must Zoom Meeting]]" by Creator/PaulCornell features an audio drama company called [[Creator/BigFinish Best Fiction]].

* Most Literature/{{Discworld}} businesses have names that don't directly suggest any specific Roundworld counterpart, or do so very obliquely, but [[Creator/TerryPratchett Sir Terry]] sometimes used this for throwaway references, if he just needed to convey "the Discworld counterpart to..." quickly. For instance, in ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'', the ingredients of a Screaming Orgasm include Almonte and Wahlulu, standing in for Amaretto and Khalua.

* In ''About the B'nai Bagels'', protagonist Mark keeps a copy of ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''-like magazine under his mattress called ''Playgirl''. Another boy's mother actually gets him a subscription. Later editions changed it to ''Playboy''. (The book and ''Playgirl'' magazine were first published the same year, 1973; E.L. Konigsberg had no way of knowing that a real magazine of that name would exist.)
[[note]] Pre-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious veiled reference to a well-known girlie magazine and hiding one under your bed says something about you. ''Post''-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious reference to the actual magazine of that name, and hiding one under your bed says something ''considerably different'' about you. (''Playgirl'' features naked men, as opposed to ''Playboy'''s naked women.) [[/note]]

** Pre-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious veiled reference to a well-known girlie magazine and hiding one under your bed says something about you. ''Post''-1973, "Playgirl" is an obvious reference to the actual magazine of that name, and hiding one under your bed says something ''considerably different'' about you. (For those who somehow managed not to know: ''Playgirl'' features naked men, as opposed to ''Playboy'''s naked women.)

* In ''Literature/{{Touch}},'' the card game that James and his friends play isn't named, though WordOfGod jokes that it's called ''[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Gather: The Magicking]]." There's also the anime ''Spacefighter X,'' which (based on the space politics) seems to be based on ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' and its imitators.

* The story "Parallels" by Jenni Hill in the Literature/SherlockHolmes AU collection ''Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets'' is about a teenage girl who writes AU Johnlock stories (yes, it's very meta). One of them is a crossover with the space opera ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Force]]'', in which Sherlock is a member of the famously logical Hephaestan race, and the villains are Krangons. ''Star Force'' is confirmed as a real show in-universe later, with a reference to [[Film/StarTrek2009 the new movies with all the lens-flare]].