History Main / MayContainEvil

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' has a new candy bar called Big Boss bars. The bars make the kids experience happiness, but wind down and go depressed unless there's more. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Binky even capitalizes it buy reselling the bars at a higher price.]] It turns out that the bars contain insect parts, chemicals and [[WhatAnIdiot radioactive elements.]] Naturally, the company that makes it shuts down when word gets out.

* The "Regenerate" product seen in the adverts for the ''Film/ResidentEvil'' films, being made by the giant evil organization.

** The old series pioneered the trope with the Autons. While the image of the shop-window dummies is famous, ''anything'' made of plastic can be an Auton, from dolls to wheelie bins, and in one particularly [[{{Narm}} hilarious]] instance, evil plastic chairs that [[http://i40.tinypic.com/10zv3i0.jpg eat]] [[http://i42.tinypic.com/2znspoj.jpg people]].

* Beauline beauty cream in the ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' movie can transform regular users into MadeOfIron, but if someone stops using it they look like a burn victim, ''and'' the heroine's best friend becomes ill enough to be hospitalized simply from using it regularly.

This plot often occurs in WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld-type shows, as it easily connects a mundane plot ([[VerySpecialEpisode Drinking/ peer pressure/ vanity]]...) with an adventure plot (aliens/ zombies/ mind control...) The effect is often connected to the product to suggest a [[AnAesop message]] that is then [[{{Anvilicious}} turned up to eleven]], such as a card game that makes people so enthused they forget to eat, or a [[TheNewRockAndRoll rock band's music]] literally turning people into murderers. Whether this message [[FantasticAesop remains reasonable outside of context, or even applies at all]], varies.

Obviously the world is coming to an end, if consumerism has gotten to that point. It can't get any worse than this, right? Wrong! For whatever reason, the product in question MayContainEvil, and that "may" is silent.

* The Silver Shamrock [[AllHallowsEve Halloween]] masks in ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'', [[spoiler:which kill their wearers with snakes and bugs when a certain commercial plays]].

* Certain artificial food colourings, such as [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_2GRed 2G]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Blue_FCF Brilliant Blue FCF]], have been linked to hyperactivity in children. Not necessarily ''evil'', but as Website/UrbanDictionary puts it: "... it is extremely unwise to give Smarties to hyperactive children, unless you want to pry them off of next door's TV aerial."

* Ads for Polar Ice gum used this as a gimmick, claiming the gum turned people into polar bears. [[CaptainObvious Of course this was totally not true]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'', we have Buzz Cola, which Krusty claims isn't poisonous to anybody [[labelnote:note]]'''Announcer''':That we know of[[/labelnote]].

* The 1989 ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie had the Joker lace beauty products with the ingredients for his trademark Smilex poison. The twist was that the contaminated products weren't poisonous on their own; they had to be mixed when the consumer used multiple products together, making it harder to find the cause of the poisoning.
* ''Film/BatmanForever'' had the Riddler's "Box" devices which sapped people's intellect/thoughts and fed it to him; they didn't notice because they were so transfixed by the virtual reality imagery it beamed into their minds.

** Season four has: [[spoiler:weight loss treatments that animate your flesh]] ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]]) and [[spoiler:catalytic converters that poison you]] ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]).

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* The early Creator/HayaoMiyazaki film ''FlyingPhantomShip'' has "Boa Juice", which cause people drinking it to dissolve.

* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'', [[spoiler:REVOCS, the biggest clothing company in the world, sells clothing containing hostile extraterrestrial Life Fibers to customers.]]

[[folder:Audio Adaptations]]
* The Cuddlesomes in the Creator/BigFinish ''Series/DoctorWho'' audio adventure ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsCuddlesome Cuddlesome]]'': cute fluffy toys that will infect anyone who doesn't love their toys enough with an alien virus.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder:Commercials]]
* Ads for Polar Ice gum used this as a gimmick, claiming the gum turned people into polar bears. [[CaptainObvious Of course this was totally not true]].
* Ads for {{Creator/Hulu}} claim that the service's owners want to melt your brains with TV, because they're evil aliens that feed on brains. True story.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/UndercoverBrother'', a racist conspiracy involved putting a chemical in fried chicken to make black people act [[UncleTomFoolery like minstrel stereotypes of blacks]].
* ''Film/StrangeBrew'' (1983) had a mind-control agent added to beer.
* Beauline beauty cream in the ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' movie can transform regular users into MadeOfIron, but if someone stops using it they look like a burn victim, ''and'' the heroine's best friend becomes ill enough to be hospitalized simply from using it regularly.
* The "Regenerate" product seen in the adverts for the ''Film/ResidentEvil'' films, being made by the giant evil organization.

* The 1995 ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' had Ivan Ooze creating a plaster-like stuff tainted with Ooze's blood that turned any person who touched it (or at least their parents) into a mindless zombie.
* ''Film/SoylentGreen'' [[MemeticMutation is made of]] [[spoiler:[[ItWasHisSled people]]]]!
* The Silver Shamrock [[AllHallowsEve Halloween]] masks in ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'', [[spoiler:which kill their wearers with snakes and bugs when a certain commercial plays]]..

* Averted by the lead-up viral marketing campaign for ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', which heavily featured a fictitious drink called "Slusho!", leading to online WildMassGuessing that the monster would be attracted to and devour its imbibers.
* ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'' gives us Contrari, a drug that is supposed to cure [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania drapetomania]], a "condition" that Confederates believe causes their slaves to run away. It pretty obviously just keeps them drugged enough to be compliant.

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', we have Valentine's sim cards, which double as receptors [[spoiler:for a signal that [[HatePlague drives up aggression while disconnecting the inhibitors]].]]

* Basis of most of ''Literature/TheDemonHeadmaster'' books and their television adaptation, whether it's a mind-controlling computer game, a frightening pig-themed TV show or a DJ.
* The Trippy Show in ''When the Tripods Came'', a prequel to ''Literature/TheTripods'' trilogy.

* In ''The Transformation'' from Marilyn Kaye's YA ''Literature/{{Replica}}'' series, teenagers' strange behavior turns out to be caused not by the candy fad or the hypnosis fad, but by subliminal messages in the television show everyone's watching.

* In Kevin Brockmeier's ''Literature/TheBriefHistoryOfTheDead'', it is suggested that the lethal virus threatening the world [[spoiler: was spread by a new Coca-Cola formulation]].
* In ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar,'' [[spoiler: white fudge]] is a delicious treat with the mild side effects of [[LotusEaterMachine total addiction]] and mind control.
* In Margaret Atwood's science fiction books ''Literature/OryxAndCrake'' and ''The Year of the Flood'', the [=BlyssPluss=] pills are marketed as the ultimate sex aid: they act as contraceptives, prevent the transmission of [=STDs=] and enhance sensation. Unfortunately some of the pills also contain an artificially created hemorrhagic Ebola-like virus that wipes out almost the entire human race.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** In season seven, the Leviathans take over - among many other things - companies that produce corn syrup, which is in practically every kind of fast food. [[spoiler:They proceed to engineer the corn syrup so that it wipes out every other kind of monster, cures all major human diseases, and - oh, wait - makes us docile enough to not notice we're being systematically killed and eaten on a worldwide scale. Dean's major concern, of course, is that he can't eat pie any more.]]
** They didn't get it right first time though - their initial attempts [[spoiler:turned a small percentage of people into ravenous, flesh-hungry monsters. And - to Dean's horror - an infected Turducken Slammer oozed grey goop when it was left for a while.]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' uses this trope to a ridiculous extreme. The new series alone has had earpieces that directly upload information into your mind (allowing for brainwashing), television sets from the 1950s that steal your face and emotion patches that killed the entire government of New New York and 99% of New Earth's population.
** Season four has [[spoiler:weight loss treatments that animate your flesh and catalytic converters that poison you.]]
*** For the first one, the "may" part is actually accurate. [[spoiler:On the original setting, the weight loss treatment actually removes that fat you didn't want, and turns it into a non-evil (and cute!) Adipose. But when it's ramped up to convert ''all'' your flesh...]]
** The old series pioneered the trope with the Autons. While the image of the shop-window dummies is famous, ''anything'' made of plastic can be an Auton, from dolls to wheelie bins, and in one particularly [[{{Narm}} hilarious]] instance, evil plastic chairs that [[http://i40.tinypic.com/10zv3i0.jpg eat]] [[http://i42.tinypic.com/2znspoj.jpg people]].
* Its SpinOff, ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', continues the tradition with the "organic" fruit drink from the Bubble Shock factory.
* In ''Series/TheMiddleMan'', the drink !!!! (pronounced by stomping one foot, throwing your hands in the air, and smiling excitedly) turns people into fish-craving zombies.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame The Game]]'', an alien race plans to take over the Federation with a video game that [[ElectricInstantGratification directly stimulates the pleasure center of the brain]], starting (naturally) with the crew of the ''Enterprise'', save for [[CreatorsPet Wesley]] [[spoiler:and Data, who lacks a pleasure center]].

* The LiveActionAdaptation of ''Series/{{Animorphs}}'' ([[FanonDiscontinuity assuming you admit it existed]]) had an episode with [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] hidden in cell phones.

---> '''Vyvyan:''' ... when the patient drinks it, he turns into an [[AxCrazy ax-wielding]] homicidal maniac. It's basically a ''cure'', for not being an ax-wielding homicidal maniac. The potential market's ''enormous''!
* The ''Series/AdamAdamantLives'' episode "The Sweet Smell Of Disaster" centers around a soap powder company distributing an addictive perfume in plastic carnations.
* In S2:E9 ("Seasons Greedings") of ''Series/LoisAndClark'', a displaced toymaker comes up with a chemical formula which makes anyone who smells it act extremely greedy and childish. He invents a new toy (the Atomic Space Rat) to unleash the toxic substance on the public.
* ''Every'' episode of ''Series/EerieIndiana: The Other Dimension'' featured a bad guy of the week who would open a store that featured this particular trope as part of their product or service. It invariably sold ridiculously well.
* The [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetic]] [[spoiler: SterilityPlague]] in ''Series/{{Utopia}}'' is formed of two parts that only activate when combined in a human. The two parts are genetically modified corn starch and a flu vaccine.
* Any product SKUL uses as the basis for one if its schemes in ''Series/MIHigh''. Examples include the mind regressing beauty treatment in "Forever Young", the logos that turn kids into human/clothing hybrids in "Evil by Design", and the addictive wursts in "Fit to Wurst" to name a few.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* A majority of cyberpunk game adventures are about stopping an evil corporation from putting a nasty product onto the market - or testing it on unsuspecting street people.
** The introductory story for ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}} 4th Edition'' subverts this. The Shadowrunner team is hired by a corp to put something nasty in a rival corp's soda in order to make it taste bad. The runners find out that the substance in question would have led to the mass poisoning of many of the orks and trolls it was supposed to be marketed to, and the culprit is their employer's human assistant, who it turns out is part of the human-supremacist hate group Humanis, who engineered this scheme to ruin the reps of both his boss and the group's fixer.
* Any consumable product made from [[GreenRocks ghost rock]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' contains evil, and most of them have some nasty random side effects.

[[folder: Urban Legends]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Helen Narbon of ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' invented a self-cooling soft drink in a non-canon storyline. The problem (or rather, plan, since she's evil) was that it was STILL self-cooling inside the human body. 80% of the world's population died of hypothermia. Good thing it was non canon :p

* In ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'', the transdimensional pudding has "evil" listed in the ingredients. [[http://goats.com/archive/990216.html Right after riboflavin.]]
* One fairly early ''Webcomic/BrunoTheBandit'' story arc involved a fast-food chain called Archio's, which was founded by a chaos demon. When a counterperson said "May I take your order?", if the customer replied "yes" then once they got the food home they turned into a mumbling shapeless blob. In a later arc the same chain sold shake-like concoctions made from bits of Archio's son Croatoan, which made habitual consumers morbidly obese by basically sitting around in your body forever and ever without being digested or excreted.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'', a brand new ''curse word'' ("Krutz!") has a marketing campaign (complete with informative pamphlets), it's bizarrely addictive to anyone who uses it, and it has a strange ability to actually relieve the speaker of whatever stress is bothering them. After saying it, a dragon even stops caring that it's dying slowly from internal injuries after the roof of its lair collapses on top of it. [[spoiler:It's a magic word that the villains have invented to siphon off all the anger, fear, pain, and other negative feelings of anyone who says it, to power a dark magic ritual.]]
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', Othar Trygvassen ([[CatchPhrase GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!]]) worries about [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110302 beer quality in Castle Heterodyne]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking among other things]].
--->"We are in Castle Heterodyne with exploding collars around our necks, caught between a fake Heterodyne and a real one. (As well as assorted criminals, maniacs and various monsters.) And I suspect that [[INeedAFreakingDrink even if we found any beer in here]], it would be evil or, at the very least, ''flat''."

[[folder: WebOriginal]]
* The [[http://burgrr.com burgrr.com]][[http://bogleech.com/burgrr-walkthrough.html ARG]] is ''all'' about this trope, what with [[spoiler: the interdimentional fast-food franchise selling brainwashing "food" that eventually turns you into the host for a type of [[ChestBurster brain parasitoid]] that then goes on to be processed and sold to yet another unknown world]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' has pretty much every product manufactured by [[MegaCorp Misery Inc.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Grossology}}'' had Sloppy Joe starting his own fast food chain that sold food that was addictive so people would eat more of it, thereby creating more garbage.

* Certain artificial food colourings, such as [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_2GRed 2G]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Blue_FCF Brilliant Blue FCF]], have been linked to hyperactivity in children. Not necessarily ''evil'', but as Website/UrbanDictionary puts it: "... it is extremely unwise to give Smarties to hyperactive children, unless you want to prize them off of next door's TV aerial."

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ArchiesWeirdMysteries'' involved an energy drink that when drank turned certain people (about one in every 10,000) into hulking monsters (like, literally [[TheIncredibleHulk Hulking]]). [[spoiler:In a twist, the company had no intention of doing so, and immediately fixed the problem when Archie told them. However, they kept the whole fix secret to save their reputation, so the episode ends with them convincing Archie not to tell the public as hundreds of people would lose their jobs if the company went down.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Side effects do not include loss of individual personality.]]]]

* Coca-Cola used to contain a small amount of [[http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/cocaine.asp cocaine]]. Should also be noted that Cocaine wasn't exactly considered evil [[ValuesDissonance at the time.]] It was, in fact, invented as a [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou more pleasant way to take one's medicine]].