[[{{AvatarTheLastAirbender}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvtropesmotivator1.jpg]]
[[caption-width:345:[[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Oh, so very true.]]]]

-->''"The year was 1987, not a very good year for productivity. And as a result, [[ShapedLikeItself productivity was down]] something-eight percent. I realized things were gonna spiral out of control unless I gave them a little jumpstart. A sign that said 'No Loafing' was the answer."''
-->--'''Strong Bad''', ''HomestarRunner'', "[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail86.html no loafing]]"

If you've ever been in a school or office environment, you've seen them: Posters encouraging the viewers to [[GraspTheSun Reach For The Stars]] and to NeverGiveUp. Invariably, these lessons are accompanied by a cute picture or a vaguely inspirational stock photo. Are you feeling motivated yet?

One would have to be [[LonersAreFreaks the most cynical misanthrope in the world]] to disagree with concepts like "[[AdolfHitler Leadership]]" or "[[ThePowerOfFriendship Teamwork]]", but one would also have to be the most optimistic {{Pollyanna}} in the world to deny that the presentation varies between [[{{Glurge}} painfully corny]] and [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]].

Thus, the FauxtivationalPoster was born in response. It takes diverse forms, all united in their use of the poster medium to [[PlayingWithATrope play with]] the Motivational Poster. Some posters present a [[AnAesop straightforward lesson]], but exaggerate the {{Glurge}} to [[IceCreamKoan nonsensical levels]]. Others preach a [[SpoofAesop patently ridiculous]] (or just [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop particularly cynical]]) lesson. Still others use the Motivational Poster format to make a humorous statement about a completely different subject.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Successories Successories]] is probably the most popular brand of Motivational Posters (inspiring many imitators); consequently most parodies follow the same layout that Successories popularized: A stock photo on a black background, with a one-word title in large text below, with a pithy saying or quote beneath that.

Something of an UndeadHorseTrope: Straight motivational posters are still in use in schools and offices (and prisons), but the parodies and subversions far outweigh straight uses everywhere else. Even when media does use straight Motivational Posters, it's almost always as an ironic counterpoint to some soul-crushing environment where the poster is hanging.

Parodies are often called "{{Demotivator}}s" or "Demotivational Posters".

Compare FauxToGuide. A specific type of {{Detournement}}.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Barney from ''HowIMetYourMother'' has a wall full of actual motivational posters, including a tailor made one for Awesomeness, but one seems decidedly fauxtivational which he showcased for Marshall (who questioned its motivational ability). It was an image of a group of Penguins, with the the text being the uplifting "Conformity: It's the one that's different that gets left out in the cold".
*''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' has two: In Gnothi Seauton five bad ass resistance fighters have a cute kitten "hang in there baby" in their hideout, which conceals a safe. In Dungeons And Dragons the future resistance have a badass mural of the same theme, except it's a lion jumping out of fire, a Terminator skull in its jaws.

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[[folder: Comics ]]

*In ''{{PS238}}'',the walls of the titular school are adorned with such posters as "Super Strength: If you don't have the power to move mountains,make friends with someone who can.".

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''CounterStrike Source'' has a level set in an office building, with these posters on the walls. The topics are all related to Counterstrike itself, in-jokes for the established community that had played the previous version obsessively for several years. For instance, a picture of a tent, and the slogan "Camping".
* ''DeadSpace'' features motivational posters in certain areas; it would presumably be played straight, except the bright, happy posters with slogans like "Better Living through Science" etc are often seen next to scenes of BodyHorror or NightmareFuelUnleaded.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

*The [[HomestarRunner Strong Bad email]] "[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail86.html no loafing]]". In addition to the eponymous sign, Strong Bad purchases some more traditional posters, featuring windsurfers and {{Space Whale}}s.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

*''ElGoonishShive:'' [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-24 "READ or the owl will eat you."]]
*''GunnerkriggCourt:'' [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=73 "READ. It makes you cool. Honest."]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=186 "Knowledge is power."]]
**Also, [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=121 the First Treatise]] ''could'' be considered a straightforward motivational poster [[BilingualBonus for those who know Latin]]: "Pray, read, read again, work, and you shall find."
*** And the page is also a [[GeniusBonus spiffy reference for those who know alchemy]]: it's from the Mutus Liber, a 17th century Huguenot alchemy text, Latin and all.
*''StarslipCrisis'' had a StoryArc (beginning [[http://www.starslip.com/2005/10/31/starslip-598/ here]]) in which curator-snob Vanderbeam sees the "Hang In There" cat poster on Jovia's wall, and becomes obsessed with finding out what a fellow lover of TrueArt could [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic possibly see]] in such a piece of obvious shlock.
*[[http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=QOW3001 This]] appears to be a literacy poster showing Kestrel from ''Queen Of Wands'' sitting in a beanbag chair with a book to illustrate the slogan "READ". On closer inspection, the book she's reading turns out to be titled "Porn".
*Fauxtivational posters are one of the most popular subjects on the [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49314 twin]] [[RemixComic art-remix]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49479 threads]] on the ''{{Erfworld}}'' forum.
*''{{Concerned}}'' had Frohman make some of these, with slogans like "Being beaten hard, or hardly being beaten?"
* ''SluggyFreelance'' has a somewhat sillier take on the "Hang In There Baby" poster in [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990425 this]] strip.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

*Big Huge Labs has a web-based program for making custom posters. [[http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php Go knock yourself out.]]
*[[http://llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/index.html An index of RPG and Geek-culture-inspired posters.]]
** See also [[http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/index.html this collection of RPG Motivational Posters]].
* 4chan has a long, ancestral tradition of making sometimes ''very lewd'' Fauxtivational Posters based on their own [[MemeticMutation memes]]. You can see them in [[http://www.macrochan.org/search.php?tags=Motivational+Poster Macrochan]] ('''''OH-SO-GODDAMN-VERY NSFW!!!''''').
** And basically every other -chan (''especially'' those with a more... mature focus than 4chan.)
*** And, yes, there are things [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth Too Spicy for 4Chan]].
* Made ''especially'' famous by TelevisionWithoutPity. [[http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3142036 Here's a link.]]
* Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday once commissioned [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/motivational-posters.php a number of these]].
* ''ForumWarz'' has a whole minigame dedicated to creating these.
* ''Worth1000'', a site which organizes daily photoshop, photography and other contests, has also run some contests where people had to [[http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=13238&display=photoshop create posters with photoshopped images]].
* [[http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Demotivators Encyclopedia Dramatica]] has a whole bunch, some that are hilarious, but after some you'll probably need to scrub your eyes (and those two types aren't mutually exclusive). You have been warned.
* This is a popular game over at the [[http://boards.9thwonders.com/index.php?showtopic=56084 9th Wonders]] ''{{Series/Heroes}}'' forum.
* [[http://www.halolz.com/category/motivational/ Halolz.com]] also has some of these. While not as bad as the 4chan example above, there's still some NSFW things there.
* [[http://www.motifake.com/ Even more of them]].
* Polish site [[http://www.demotywatory.pl Demotywatory.pl]]. ThisTroper, from Poland, noted the the demotivational posters being one of the biggest "new" internet fads of 2009 (despite of them being older than the internet. We're pretty keen on being late to all memes, for example the Badger Badger meme was only discovered by everyone on the internet here this year.)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

*''TheSimpsons'' featured the "Hang in there!" cat poster. Marge notices that, since the copyright on the poster dates back to the 1968, the cat must be long dead, which she thinks is makes the poster actually "kind of a downer".
** It also had, in "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer's ''de''motivational plaque: "Don't forget, you're here forever." Homer used pictures of Maggie to turn it into "Do it for her," in a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.
* The "Hang in there!" poster also appears in ''Dr. Katz''.
* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Cryonic Woman", Leela reapplies for her old job at the cryonics center:
-->"Oh, I was hoping you would come back. I even saved your poster of a chimp expressing your distaste for Mondays!"
-->"Monday monkey lives for the weekend, sir!"
** Don't forget the one from the first episode which refers to the policy of people being assigned careers instead of choosing their own, which features a man in a hard-hat with a rather dubious look on his face giving a thumbs-up, with the caption "You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do".
** Paying attention to the background nets a few more of these as well. In one episode, a poster outside an army recruitment office reads:
-->"Join The Army Today!!
-->What are you, Chickien?
-->Bwak Buk Buk Bawk!"
* Peter Potamus has several posters with a hippopotamus "reaching for ''that thing''" in ''HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw''.
* Played straight but subtle in ''TransformersAnimated''. When we see Prowl's room as he meditates, there's a poster of a cute little kitty on a branch reading "Chin up!" Made hilarious as one wonders where Prowl found the poster (that size) in the first place, and what prompted the DeadpanSnarker to hang it in his zen spot.
** This is made interesting by the fact that it appears ''every'' time that room is shown. Possibly one of the writers has it in their office.
* On ''MonstersVsAliens'', the "Hang in there" poster is hung on Susan's cell in a pathethic attempt to make her imprisonment more tolerable. It doesn't work. "I want a ''real'' kitten, hanging from a ''real'' tree!"

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

*[[http://www.successories.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/dir_product.group_brand/product_group_id/e429709c-250d-488d-a7bb-90f537107324/Motivational-Framed-Prints.cfm Successories]]
*[[http://www.allposters.com/-st/Motivational-Posters_c12920_.htm AllPosters.com's top-selling motivators.]]
*[[http://despair.com/viewall.html Despair, Inc.]]
** [[{{pawsplay}} This troper]] used to work with those guys, back when they worked for a major Internet company. In a supremely ironic twist, after the Internet company was bought out, one of the new [=VPs=] complained about one of those posters being in the operations room, citing its cynicism, pessimism, and poor company spirit. The poster in question stated, "It is possible your only purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others."
* This troper also feels a pointed real-life example would be the [[http://www.farleighcollege.co.uk/ specialist school for Asperger's Students]] he attended for several years. The motivational posters were the classic black background, inspirational picture, inspirational line jobs (mostly of the 'it's alright to be special' and 'everyone's different' variety ), and it was universally agreed by those members of the student body capable of grasping the concept of being insulted that they were, in fact, downright insulting. Of course, such complaints were summarily ignored. And all this started when the idealistic founder was bought out by celebrity drug rehab group Priory...
* [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm This.]]
** And the inevitable [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollym/3427210378/ parody]].
* A painful example of wildly inappropriate (and probably sadistically ironic) Straight Lesson in the wrong environment would be the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" (work frees you) at the entrance of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps.
* This troper's father has [[http://chat-arcade.com/uploaddir/retards-birds-demotivational-poster.jpg this]] demotivational poster in his office. He is a Master Sergeant for the U.S. Army and would be quite willing to point out that it is accurate to his work environment.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: TV Tropes Wiki ]]
\\
The following articles feature parody posters:
*FauxtivationalPoster ([[CaptainObvious well, duh!]])
*All of the CharacterAlignment sub-pages.
*CodeGeass [[Memes/CodeGeass Memes]]
*CreepyBasement
*CrowningMomentOfAwesome: CrowningMoment/TheDresdenFiles
*DoesntLikeGuns
*EatsBabies
*EpicFail
*EvilOldFolks
*ForTheEvulz
*IfJesusThenAliens
*InstantAIJustAddWater
*InverseNinjaLaw
*KatanasAreJustBetter
*MasochistsMeal
*MaximumFunChamber
*NakedFirstImpression
*OlderThanTheyThink
*OverusedCopycatCharacter
*{{Pokegirls}}
*PoliceBrutality
*ThePowerOfFriendship
*SeriousBusiness
*SteamPunk
*StoryboardingTheApocalypse
*StupidJetpackHitler
*SwissArmyWeapon
*TankGoodness
*TestosteronePoisoning
*TheTeutonicKnights
*ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels
*TotalPartyKill
*WhyAmITicking
*YouMeddlingKids
*YouRequireMoreVespeneGas
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