Bland Name Product - Television Tropes & Idioms

Pocari Sweat was called "Hocari Sweat" in Detective Conan.
Subverted in Lovely Complex. Pocari sweat stays as it is.
In a later episode of Minami-Ke Okawari, Chiaki is seen browsing "Nekoneko Douga" (Cat Video), which is a parody of the Japanese You Tube-esque site Niconico Douga (Smile Video).
In Otogi Zoshi, Hikaru borrows a vespa-scooter-thing from "Pizza Hot".
- That's only because Pizza Hut supports the rebellion.
In Excel Saga, Nabeshin drives a "Mitsubibi Lancer." They also watch news reports on an SQNY television.
- The "Next episode" buffers take place in front of a giant "20th Century FQX" logo.
Death Note has "Gentle!" instead of ~~Google~~ Yahoo! (it must be for refined internet users), Eighteen instead of Seventeen magazine, and "Fanasonic" instead of Panasonic giant TV sets.
- And to the amusement of this editor: "Mild Turkey".
Done (a lot) in Eureka Seven with, among others, "Rersi Cola" (which also sounds like "RC Cola", for a double whammy) and "Smickers" bars.
Cowboy Bebop featured "Pippu" cola, whose color scheme was exactly the same as that of Pepsi.
Planetes has "Bepsi," and there's also a Coca-Cola analogue.
Lucky Star has "Rindows◊" (who knows, maybe it's an Engrish version of Lindows...)
- Lucky Star also makes references to other anime and video games, even going so far as to bleep the titles out.
The Prince Of Tennis had "Ponta" as a stand-in for Fanta.
- This Troper isn't sure if this counts, but Fila's distinctive "F" logo was altered into an "E" (for "Echizen", as in Ryoma Echizen) in the anime
Welcome To The NHK also has "Mindows" OS, a "Pujitsu" computer and a "Lurex" (or something like that) wristwatch, "Warboro"-brand cigarettes, and probably other such brands.
"Espon" laptops appear in the Suzumiya Haruhi anime, and the characters regularly eat at 'WcDonalds'.
- The latter seems somewhat odd since during one outdoor scene, the background shows what is unmistakably a Sunkus convenience store...
A "Nihon" camera appears in the first episode of Negima!? (for those who might not get it, "Nihon" is meant to sound like "Nikon", a noted maker of cameras).
- In the manga,characters could be found drinking coffee at "Starbooks".
  - As well as one character wearing a "Sax Pascals Anarchy" hat in chapter 27.
- Nihon also supplies cameras for Azumanga Daioh, in the anime. There's also a Fuji-like sign (when Sakaki buys her Nihon camera), but no text is visible. In addition, the characters occasionally get food from WgDonald's.
- I think Gin's camera in Rosario To Vampire is "Nokon"
Similarly, products from "Somy" (and their "Pandycam"), "Mikon" and other similar "manufacturers" can be found in many anime.
Ouran High School Host Club does this often, with 'Mational' light bulbs (National), 'PineApple' computers, 'Hescafe' coffee, 'Oh!Laan! Auctions (a parody of Yahoo! Auctions), and 'Ukidoki Memorial' (Tokimeki Memorial).
"Puchy" instead of "Pocky" in The iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia.
"Pochy" takes the place of "Pocky" in Onegai Teacher. The sequel, Onegai Twins, features a character who eats "Prech", a parody of "Pretz."
In the first season of Initial D, the word "Trueno" (in the front of the hero's car) is spelled as "Toreno". This eventually changed when Toyota allowed them to use the AE86 Sprinter Trueno's proper name.
- Maybe Toyota wanted Initial D to stop advertising Ford Torinos?
- The dialogue also usually referred to the car as the "hachi-roku" ("eight-six"), a popular nickname for the AE86, and the name "Trueno" was seldom (if ever) used.
  - Possibly because the name was used on several generations of later models, which were FWD and therefore of little interest to drifters?
In one episode of Ranma 1/2, Genma uses a "Seny Gandycam" to record Ranma and Akane's Almost Kiss. In another, Ranma and Akane buy burgers from what is clearly a Bland Name Product version of Mac Donalds... possibly the ancestor to "Wac Donalds" in Inu Yasha.
Noein has a "Yonkie" [Yorkie] bar.
Black Lagoon has multiple, the most noticeable of which would be the "Heireken" (Heineken) beer the protagonists all drink.
- Yet there's no issue with them referring to Bacardi, nor is the GTO tag hidden on Benny's car in some shots. Heck, Revy's guns are Beretta 92F customs, which are prominently displayed in the opening sequence and mentioned at least once.
WcDonalds or a variant thereof often appears in anime (and a few western shows) with the McDonalds' golden arches flipped vertically.
- Inu Yasha in the modern settings.
- Ah My Goddess in the second episode.
- Axis Powers Hetalia has "Mc[BEEP]nald's."
- Azumanga Daioh (Magnetron, with the logo adding a smaller 'G'.)
- Cowboy Bebop
- Danny Phantom
- Dear Boys
- Doki Doki School Hours
- Hikaru No Go
- Kekkaishi (although, since McDonald's actually is a sponsor in the anime adaptation, it also appears as is in one episode)
- Keroro Gunsou
- Kodomo No Omocha
- Kodomo No Jikan
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
- Moldiver
- The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
- Ouran High School Host Club
- Please Save My Earth
- Ichigo 100%
- UFO Baby
- Uta Kata
- Tsukihime
- Sonic X
- South Park
- NcDonald's, which appeared in Hikaru No Go
- Digimon Savers
- Super Gals!
- Beavis And Butthead, where W is for "Burger World" and "Maxi Mart" replaces "Mini Mart."
- Megas XLR
- Virtua Fighter; the dub adds a reference to a "Big Wac."
- Gundam Wing at the end of Endless Waltz.
- Chaos Head manages to get both Mc Deinald's and Wac Ti Kald's. Really.
- Tokko features Wcdon@lds in episode 4, with an "at sign" instead of a normal A.
- Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple has "Matsuenald's" - a pun on the mangaka's name (Shun Matsuena) - with the "M" logo shaped as Matsuena's hairdo as he usually depicts it his caricature self-portraits.
- Senki Senki Momotama (a manga by Nanae Chrono), there's the fast food restaurant "McBonald's".
Sanzo's 'Merlboro' cigarettes in the Saiyuki Reload -burial- OVA. They're always regular Marlboros in the manga.
An episode of Gundam Wing briefly features a circuit board labeled "Intel Outside". In a thermonuclear warhead. This was in the episode where Heero had to disarm a sabotaged missile silo (he does so by simply pulling a few wires).
The OEL manga Drama Con has this in spades. "Mcburger Queen," "Mangapop," "Daylodge" and "Taco Hut" appear prominently, as well as references to fake anime such as "Sailing Moon".
In Ghost In The Shell, Batou faces robo-Rotties made by "Tonda" (using the same typeface as Honda).
"Somy" in Ah My Goddess, among uncounted others.
- Including "Poca-Cola", on which Belldandy gets wasted.
Azumanga Daioh also has "abidas" (adidas) and "Rocky" (Pocky).
- In a strange twist of real life imitating art, Pocky is indeed sold as "Rocky" in some South-East Asian countries, although the original "Pocky" is available at import stores.
A character in Nabari No Ou uses software like Odobe Photograph, Mouton AntiVirus 2015, Saikrosoft Sentence/EXL/Autolock/Postman, and Ninja Seiden (a pun on Ninja Gaiden).
Neon Genesis Evangelion has "Yebichu" (Yebisu) beer, carried from the Oruchuban Ebichu manga; the Rebuild of Evangelion movie, however, did had the real Yebisu. There's also a "SECA" video game, odd considering Sega was in fact a major sponsor of the series.
In Project A Ko, we briefly see a can of "Doctor Bepper."
The first episode of Shakugan no Shana shows the protagonist entering a music and DVD store named HNV with an all but identical HMV sign overhead.
Tenjho Tenge has some very Narmful cans of "Caca Cola."
Transformers Super God Masterforce features CNM News, Dunpop Cars, and Camon Cameras.
Genshiken has the group going to a doujinshi sale convention called "Comifes" (Comiket).
- Interestingly, in Genshiken, all of the games the boys/girls play aren't product-changed, but the SYSTEM they play them on is. There's a wonderful image of a popular PS 2 game sitting next to what is clearly a PS 2 controller with the brand name "SANY" on it.
- Not only that, they've got anime and manga that are very clearly famous series In Everything But Name. Series like Neko-Yasha and Astro Girl, Mode Riisu and Anman-Dama. Only Gundam makes it through unscathed, and even then, only in the manga.
- There's also a "Starbooks Coffee".
- There's also a "Kujifilm" camera, which doubles as a Shout Out to the Spinoff Show Within A Show Kujibiki Unbalance.
- And there was an "MG" model kit which turned out to be a Humongous Mecha, not a British sports car.
Lampshaded in Toradora, when Ryuji wonders how a "Sudohbucks Coffee" has yet to be sued.
Chaos;Head...where to begin? Deloodle, Taboo!, Animeight, @Channel, MewTube, McDynald's...The Other Wiki becomes "We-Key Pedophilia". Surprisingly, Coca-Cola remains unchanged.
At least one episode of Kamen No Maid Guy features a "Meido" laptop, with a logo patterned after Sony's Vaio.
- There are also such Sony Vaio laptop spoofs in Sekirei
One episode of Digimon Tamers has a mom telling her daughter that "Bernard the Dinosaur" is on.
One Piece has an in-universe version; Doko1 Panda, cheap knockoffs of the in-universe clothes brand Doskoi Panda.
Keroro Gunsou has featured in its manga Mahoo! (instead of Yahoo!), Keuters (intead of Reuters), KerockTime (instead of QuickTime, probably because the software is from their homeworld) and Nendo CS (instead of Nintendo DS).
- Mahou Sensei Negima also uses Mahoo!, or rather Mahoo!?
The Yu Gi Oh Manga had Sory and Panazonic.
In Melody Of Oblivion Bocca buys Sayoko dinner at 'Starducks Coffee'.
In the Japanese version of Rockman EXE, Yaito's father is the president of Gabcom (ガブコン), a pun on Capcom (カプコン). Since Capcom made the Rockman EXE series, this was probably meant to be a parody of the trope.
In Fushigi Yuugi, Miaka gives some "Creen Gum" to Tamahome (while keeping the "Lotte" part intact) and later in a flashback shows her using a "Pontax" digicam.
Hayate No Gotoku has a tendency to do this, given its sheer volume of Shout Outs. The most obvious example is the Ai-Dollar-Master video game in Episode 20.
- There are also "Pony" televisions and "Seako" clocks.
Conspicuously absent in Twentieth Century Boys, particularly this page. Everything shown or named there is real.
Yatta-la Kernagul wants to open a chain of fried chicken restaurants called "Kernagul's Fried Chicken" and a hamburger chain called "KerDonald's".
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro had a 'Zeep' as well as 'Wacintosh'.
Yaiba's nemesis Takeshi has a wide-screen made by "Ony".
In one of the extras in the Da Capo TV Series, Miharu has a desktop PC whose OS is "Windoors 2000", and she surfs a website called "Ahoo!" (Japanese site, hence its url ends in ahoo.co.jp) where she does online auctions.
In Narue No Sekai, Kazuto's PC's OS is "Minboms '97".
In Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, the opening has Kurz looking through a dirty magazine with a hot babe on it titled "Play Ball."

Close Anime & Manga

In Ultimate Spider-Man, the search engine used by Peter Parker is called Goggle.
- Which is, sadly, an actual website that infects you with all manner of spyware. I guess they Did Not Do The Research...
During the run of Justice League International, Martian Manhunter developed a problem with ~~Oreos~~ Chocos.
In the comic book adaptation of the 2007 Transformers live action movie, Sam Witwicky tries to sell his grandfather's glasses via "ePay".
- This continued in the later Alliance miniseries, which briefly featured two of the All Spark-animated robots from the movie; Dispensor, the Mountain Dew vending machine, was shown shooting cans of "Mountain IDW" (a Shout Out to the comic's publisher), while the Xbox 360 robot was re-labeled a "Y-Box".
Depending on the writer/artist/era, a lot of DC comics, especially those aimed at teenagers (ie, the "sidekick" books like Robin and Teen Titans) will have a number of these. Examples include "Sundollars" coffee, "Crocky the Dinosaur" and, of course, "Wc Donalds."
Archie In a story where Jughead eats at every resturant in a 50-mile radius, Riverdale has a "Windy's" (Wendy's) and a "Mc Dougals" (Mc Donalds).

Close Comic Books

The movie Coming to America lampshades it, as the owner of the fast-food restaurant McDowell's gripes about McDonald's trying to sue him over (what he feels are) trivial similarities.
Cleo McDowell: Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.
- Ironically the movie was shot in a converted Wendy's.
  - Later, it is shown that Cleo has a Mc Donald's operations manual in his possession.
In Idiocracy, Brawndo is largely a stand-in for Gatorade. The main character, who's from the present day, even mentions that it "tastes just like Gatorade". In a bizarre twist, Brawndo became a drink in Real Life — and is a citrus-flavored energy drink, à la Monster and Amp, rather than a sports drink like Gatorade.
- Legend has it they wanted to use Gatorade, but Gatorade refused. Several other real companies agreed to allow their names to be used, even though they were used in a disrespectful way (Fuddruckers, Costco, Starbucks, Carl's Jr.).
In the Evil Dead films, Ash works at the local S-Mart, an obvious stand-in for K-Mart.
- Shop SMart! Shop S-Mart!

Close Film

In About the B'nai Bagels, protagonist Mark keeps a copy of 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.)
Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon features the heroes using a 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 IBM.
One of Harry Turtledove's alternate history series has the most popular soft drink in the Confederate States of America being "Doctor Hopper".
Lampshaded to an extent in 2001: A Space Odyssey and its many sequels. HAL's designer patently denies any relation between the computer and IBM - whose initials are all one letter after H-A-L.
- Word Of God states that had he realized the connection, he would have changed HAL's name, as IBM helped them make the film.
Good Omens gave us the "Burger Lord" chain. Elvis works at one.
Scott Westerfeld's novel So Yesterday not only censors out brandnames with astrixs but, as the entire plot deals with consumer culture, lampshades it by having the narroator explain exactly why he's doing it.

Close Literature

"Morley", a fictional cigarette brand based on Marlboro cigarettes ("Marleys"), was the brand of choice for The Cigarette Smoking Man (of The X Files) and Spike (of Buffy The Vampire Slayer). Packs of Morleys have also turned up in Malcolm In The Middle, The Outer Limits, and the movies Spy Game, Prozac Nation and thirteen, as well as elsewhere. The X-Files episode Brand X lampshades this fairly heavily.
A number of episodes of the TV series Friends feature "Love That Crunch" cereal, which is otherwise completely the same as "Captain Crunch", including the character on the front.
Played with on an episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch, where witches trying to magically create brand goods automatically create a Bland Name Product equivalent with an obviously similar name, such as "N&N's" instead of "M&M's". They couldn't even have Rollerblade inline skates, instead, they got Roller Blahds.
An episode of Homicide Life On The Street has a character drinking "Bedwiser".
Skist, the soft drink choice of Veronica Mars.
In the Hobgoblins episode of MST3k, an educational short Crow has made is shown on a "Stony" TV.
In Big Bad Beetleborgs, a bottle of "Fountain Don't" is used to trick one of the main characters to drink a mutation potion.
Used to an extreme in every single Nickelodeon show produced by Schneider's Bakery Productions. This includes All That and The Amanda Show (mostly lampshaded) and also Drake And Josh and Zoey 101. Extremely narmful in iCarly, where their webshow is called 'iCarly', but they still listen to 'pearpods', talk on their 'pearphones', and all the computers have a pear logo on them.
To be fair, Zoey 101 seemed to favor putting a school emblem over the manufacturer's logo (as was also done on Neds Declassified).
The fictional girlie magazine Playpen which made its first recorded appearance in an episode of the Sixties Sit Com That Girl and is still going strong.
A recent episode of The Bill featured the police looking for clues on the young female kidnap victim's "Face Space" page.
The 'Friendface' episode of Sit Com The IT Crowd features, as well as the eponymous social networking site, soft drink "Cuke", resplendent in exactly the same packaging as Coca-Cola.
Harry Hills TV Burp had a skit featuring the shopping channel OVC, instead of QVC.
Murphy Brown has a box of Dunkin Donuts in almost every episode... except the familiar logo has been changed so that it reads "Donuts Donuts".
Frasier: The brothers go to buy a new recliner for Martin and the salesman recommends a "La-Z-Guy" chair.
Frasier: "La-Z-Guy." I wonder what they call the deluxe model? The "Hopeless Slack-Ass?"
The Middleman created Your Face in a Tube, simultaneously making us think of My Space, Face Book, AND You Tube in one awesome website name.
The JAG and NCIS team, regularly view reports from the ZNN news channel.
- NCIS does this with several different brands. GSM for FHM, Cybervid for Youtube and Pagebook for Myspace/Facebook, depending on what the plot demands. Possibly the strangest example is the 'Bearey Smiles' talking teddy bear ment to be a stand-in for the Tickle Me Elmo craze of the nineties. It's... underwhelming.
Averted when it's their own network being shown. 24 will show Fox News, Law And Order will show NBC, and so forth.
In the university canteen on The Big Bang Theory soft drinks such as Dr Peeper and Diet Cola are sold in cans identical to the real life brands. Sheldon's non-existant cousin (who was made up to fool Penny) had apparently escaped rehab and was staying at a Motel 8.
The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica had a Spaceline called Pan Galactic which used an identical symbol to the Pan American Airline. Examples of which can be seen here◊ and here◊.

Close Live Action TV

Dykes To Watch Out For does this constantly to parodic effect: "medusa.com," "Bounders Books & Muzak," "Bunns & Noodle," "Bed Bath & Bite Me," "Papaya Republic," etc. This troper's personal favourite was a publishing house, "Furrier Sprout & Genoux."
In Get Fuzzy, the characters are often seen going to McDoody's to get a Howdy Meal.
- They also have a fish-and-chips chain called Cap'n Dawson's (both referencing "Captain D's", and allowing a Jaws reference by covering parts of the word "Dawson's" with the edge of the frame).
FoxTrot is chock full of this, mainly on the magazines or newspapers the characters are reading. Names such as Arper Shimage, Waxmell House and Gique are frequent.
- Don't forget "Duke Quakem", "World of Warquest" and the iFruit.

Close Newspaper Comics

Finian's Rainbow has the catalogue of Shears and Robust. Mr. Shears and Mr. Robust themselves make an appearance.

Close Theatre

One of the random items enemies in Bubble Bobble turn into upon defeat are WcDonalds fries.
- Ditto the platformer Prehistorik Man.
Command And Conquer: Red Alert 2 had "McBurger Kong" restaurants. It featured a giant gorilla statue on the roof, and if you garrisoned the building, you'd get some monkeys to control.
Disgaea 3 had Mao playing an unnamed but strangely familiar RPG on his Slaystation Portable.
- The first Disgaea had Captain Gordon asking for a Teriyaki Pizza from "Pizza Shack" to be waiting for him when he returns.
An item from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is called Penters Natural. (Werther's Original)
Fallout has Nuka-cola! 200 years after a nuclear war they're still good! They also come in Nuka-Cola Quantum which is enhanced with a mild radioactive Strontium isotope which gives it a kick and a pleasing blue glow.
Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V is taken in by the legendary sword Excalipoor.
In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is forced to hijack a motorcycle in order to escape from Shinra HQ. It's a Hardy Daytona.
Just about every car model in the Grand Theft Auto series is a Bland Name Product version of an existing car. Examples include the Mundano (Ford Mondeo), Counthash(Lamborghini Diablo in GTA 1), Beast/Banshee(Dodge Viper)(the Banshee was a Corvette in Vice City), Impaler (Chevrolet Impala), Bug (VW Beetle), Penetrator(Jensen-Healey Interceptor), Benson(Mercedes-Benz 300 SL), Aniston BD 4(Aston Martin DB 4), Phoenix (Pontiac Firebird), Cheetah(Ferrari Testarossa in III and later), Infernus (Lamborghini Diablo in GTA III, although San Andreas replaced it with a Honda NSX) and U-Jerk truck.
- Grand Theft Auto IV also uses "Panoramic" instead of "Panasonic".
- San Andreas and IV also had Sprunk soda, a obvious reference to Sprite.
- Grand Theft Auto London 1969: Fat=Fiat, Squealey=Austin Healey, James Bomb=Aston Martin DB 5, Crapi=Ford Capri, Myni=Mini Cooper, Locust=Lotus, Reno=Renault, Harold=Triumph Herald, Raver=Rover, Jug Swinger=Austin Powers Jaguar E-Type, MC Hamper=MG Midget, S-Cart=Ford Escort.
Headhunter sported several boxes bearing the amusing logo "Nosy," done in Sony's font.
In the much-loved 'A New Life' stage of Hitman: Blood Money, one of the best ways to get started is to slip a pair of drugged donuts to some FBI agents, so you can steal their uniforms. The fauxnuts are, of course, from 'Delicious Donuts', using the characteristic color scheme and font of Dunkin' Donuts.
Kingdom Of Loathing has more of these than you can poke a stick, although it's more because the dev team love puns than for legal reasons. Cloaca Cola and Dyspepsi Cola, Tom's of the Spanish Main toothpaste, Hatorade sports drink, Red Minotaur energy drink, Domesticated Turkey bourbon, Eye-Pod mp3 players, Elmley sunglasses... the list of crimes against the english language is almost endless.
The Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 features sponsors such as Marioboro, Luigip and Yoshi 1.
In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Snake's favourite brand of cigarettes is Lucky Strikers, in a white box with a red spot.
Mushroom Men runneth over with various, amusingly-labeled products. If it exists in the game, chances are good it either has a humorous made-up name (like matchbooks from "Ned's Banjos & Feline Taxidermy") or a Bland Name. Some of them are quite subtle, too—very few people outside of artists would recognize what "Prissy Color" pencils are related to (Prismacolor art products, for the curious), for example.
The vending machines in Persona 3 all have Captain Ersatz brands of beverages, such as Cielo Mist, SoBay, Mad Bull, One-Up, and this editor's favorite, Fountain Dew.
- Lampshaded or at least poked fun at by the punny item descriptions. SoBay, for example, is described as a drink that has uncanny popularity in Internet auctions.
- And who could forget BauerBar, said to have enough energy packed to "keep you going for twenty four hours straight".
- Not to mention CylonTea, which comes in twelve flavors.
This trope goes all the way back to GameTek's MS-DOS and Commodore 64 adaptations of The Price Is Right, released in 1990.
Resident Evil 2 had plenty of these, such as a fast food wrapper from "Burger Kong," a "Taxago" gas station, vending machines selling "Cool Soda" in a blue can with a white recurved stripe (because the stripe is also a trademark of Coca-Cola, this was replaced in later releases by a plain black can), and a cigarette billboard that resembles the Marlboro brand, only green (looks like Capcom didn't know Marlboro sells a menthol...).
- Resident Evil 3 had a DeLorean replica (serial numbers filed off) at the Stagla gas station. And ads for "Safsprin", "Aquacure", and "Adravil".
San Francisco Rush series: Most of the cars are knockoffs of real ones, although a few are completely made up. Compact=Acura Integra R, Muscle Car=Corvette Sting Ray, Bruiser=Plymouth Hemi Cuda, Exotic & Super GT=Bugatti EB 110, Mobster=Chevy Fleetline, Sportster=Dodge Viper (RT-10 roof, but with GTS competition stripes), Euro LX=BMW Z9, Venom=Lamborghini Diablo, Panther=Mc Laren F1.
Silent Hill is loaded with these all over the titular town, including a Queen Burger (later Happy Burger) restaurant (complete with the "bun halves" framing the logo), Vestal Gigastore (Virgin Megastore), cardboard boxes stamped with "Fedy-X," and an out-of-place bag of jellybeans bearing a logo almost identical to Jelly Belly's.
- You forgot to mention Poston Market, Texxon gas, the (S)Hell station with the nautilus shell, the Circle 8 convenience store with the logo that looks a suspicious lot like that of 7-Eleven, and the AEC restaurant with the A&W motif.
Super James Pond (also known as [Super] James Pond II) has "Bony" stereo systems.
Postal 2 features a game called Sym Homeless, and lampshaded by a local newspaper telling that "lawsuit narrowly averted by changing i to y".
Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero lacks licensed cars, instead using replicas of them, each named "TYPE-_____." If you get up close to a car and look at its emblem, you'll notice that it looks almost like a real brand name, but altered slightly; for example, Isuzu-like trucks have the emblem spelling out "USUZU."
The remake of the first Trauma Center has Pochy. No points for getting the reference right.
A Vampyre Story has an energy drink called "Scarlet Bovine". This is a double bland-name, referring both to Red Bull energy drink and Crimson Cow, the game's publisher.
World Driver Championship: Ellipse Stallion=Ford Mustang Cobra R, Rage 512 EVO=Porsche 911 GT 1 EVO, Reeds R12 Manta=Chevy Corvette C5R, Elan Swift TT=Lotus Esprit GT1, Ram Venom GTR = Dodge Viper GTSR, EXR Mystic=TVR Speed 12.
Even some of the old Sega console games have these. I forgot what game it was but I believe i have seen "Marobare" (Marlboro) and "Bridalstone" (Bridgestone) ads on the roadside which looks like the real thing if you are not paying close attention.
The Adventures Of Willy Beamish: The Beamishes own a high-end television made by — according to the narrator — Fony.
- Not to mention Willy's game systems of choice: his Nintari home console and portable Game Buddy.
Maria collects My Precious Pony dolls in the Backyard Sports games. Guess what that is a spoof of...

Close Video Games

User Friendly had "Snurf" guns in several early strips
Yu Me Dream has "IHOW", the "International House Of Waffles", as well as "Wahoo.com".
Dork Tower features a game called "Warhamster".
Megatokyo has the company names "Lockart" and "Cubesoft".

Close Web Comics

Foamy the Squirrel of Illwillpress commonly uses brand substitutes.
- Snell Computer company
- Fatkins Diet
Tales Of The Starbuck Avenger averts this, obviously.

Close Web Original

In The Simpsons, Homer Simpson knows that he can trust the "Sorny," "Panaphonics," and "Magnetbox" brand TVs that you find in an outlet store. Then again, he's an idiot and Bart was complaining how they were brand-name ripoffs. There's also has "Cosmic Wars".
- This show also has several analogous video games like "Dash Dingo" and "Grand Theft Walrus."
- More recently, there was Mapple Computers, whose CEO was named Steve Mobs, which manufactured the MyPod portable music player which could download songs and TV episodes from MyTunes. Oh, and its logo is an apple with two bites taken out of it.
- Bart, saying goodbye to the the contents of his toy box:
"Goodbye Spirogram. Goodbye Sketch-N-Etch. Goodbye Ravenous Ravenous Rhinos, Duopoly, Parchoosey, Humor putty, and Sock-em Knock-em Cyborgs..."
- And, of course, the Malibou Stacy dolls.
A number of scenes in King Of The Hill take place in Luly's Cafeteria. The restaurant and its logo are a blatant pastiche of Luby's, but odds are that viewers who haven't been to Texas have probably never heard of it.
Megas XLR has "PopTV", with the letters arranged in a way that looks a bit too much like the MTV logo.
Futurama has "futuristic" versions of real trademarks, such as "MmmTV" and "8-Twelve".
- The Femputer uses loudspeakers from Sonya.
- Don't forget Admiral Crunch and Archduke Chocula.
- The Box Network which cancelled the Planetary express (and the neon "B" on their building logo once glitched to look like an "F"), as well as the Carton Network.
Kim Possible had many.
- Cuddle Buddies=Beanie Babies
- Club Banana=Banana Republic
- Smarty Mart=Wal-Mart
South Park goes as close as it can get to real brands, with names like "HBC" (NBC), "Harbucks Coffee", "Wall-Mart" and "J-Mart", as well as the "Okama Gamesphere", a pastiche of the Nintendo Gamecube. Due to the occasional Product Placement deal, however, some episodes have featured stuff like the PSP or the Nintendo Wii — plus, you know, World Of Warcraft.
One episode of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest had Race breaking into a building using a Nisa (Visa) credit card.
In Metalocalypse, Nathan Explosion has a dream about working at Dimmu Burger, both a parody of Burger King and a shout-out to real life metal band Dimmu Borgir.
Daria had a very funny example: Fuzzy Wuzzy Wee Bits (Beanie Babies)
- In one of the movies, there's "Lackluster Video".
The Weekenders has an amusing incident of this. The main characters wanted to go see a sci-fi movie about cosmic battles a long time ago, but were disappointed when they realized they read the movie's title wrong and instead saw a two-hour long documentary about escalators: Stair Wars.
A Stardoes Appears in Arthur's Perfect Christmas.
Pinky And The Brain are occasionally seen watching television; one of the brands used is Zony.

Close Western Animation

Manufacturers of some counterfeit products make small changes to names, logos, and other trademarks. Some examples can be found on Engadget's Keepin' it real fake series. An example seen by this editor would be a "Game Bay" cartridge made by "Nintende(TN)".
- Many companies that manufacture unlicensed accessories for the Nintendo Wii mark them as being for the "Wü"
From The Fifties through The Seventies, it was common for cars to have names spelled out in separate chromed diecast letters along the hood, trunklid or fenders, bolted or riveted in place. Urban legend had it that these would sometimes be misspelled by the factory workers. Documented evidence does exist of one division's nameplate being placed on one part of the car and a different one on another (eg. "Buick" on the grille and "Oldsmobile" on the trunk lid). - Most common of all was their letter falling off, leaving the driver with a Fo_d, C_evrolet or even a Do_g_ .
There's a whole market for imaginary products in the form of 3D assets that people purchase, especially for use with the Poser home animation program. While there's no real problem with using something trademarked, many trademarked logos are also copyrighted. Of course, at the same time, people tend to want things based on stuff they're familiar with, either from popular fiction or from the real world, and so this leads to "almost-but-not-quite" products, often with 'Pose' or 'Poser' in the name, such as Diet Poser Cola, the Banana dPod, and Burger Jack's Meals. Other times, they just don't bother.
KFG.◊
- So that would be Kentucky Fried.....Goat? Groundhog? Gerbil? Gorilla? Gecko? Gazelle? Goldfish? Grizzly? Guppy? Galapagos Tortoise?
- There is a whole site dedicated to bad rip-offs of KFC. The attempts are so horrible that the author's reactions range from mildly sarcastic to outright spittle-flecked ranting.
The Transformers franchise has had to deal with some of this over the years. The original toy line featured some vehicle modes that strongly resembled real life models. When they do an Anniversary toy line with an updated version, they sometimes just cannot take what the car was originally because of licensing problems. For example: Bumblebee was a VW beetle and Jazz was a Porsche. Both companies did not want to be associated with a violent kids show. So instead Hasbro would create a car design that was far enough removed from the name brand but close enough that there is no problem recognising the character. The 2007 movie did not have that luxury, and just changed the alternate modes. Although the Alternators and Binaltech lines were unique for having absolutely everything be a licensed toy, though it was mostly Ford, Chevy and Dodge.
- This troper once saw "Morphobots" at a dollar store, which were bootlegs of the Transformers Cybertron Legends (mostly beasts) toys.
There are a lot of these in open-air markets and bazaars in the Philippines, which tend to feature a lot of knockoffs from China, Taiwan, and other neighboring nations. This Filipino troper can recall seeing a Power Pop Girls towel, a Jurassic Wars set (a WWII soldier inexplicably packaged with a pink plastic velociraptor), and Guchi handbags among several others.
KenSingTon, makers of the "Vii", a knockoff of the Wii. The Vii got the nickname "Chintendo Vii" after widespread exposure on the Internet.
There was also a pirate game company named Chintendo.
One pirate NES game producer was named "Cony".
- Speaking of, compare the Sony logo◊ with the Coby logo◊. Coincidence? We think not!
Many generic, store brand cereals in grocery stores do this. A brand like Lucky Charms will often have a box of cereal next to it with the same colors, except barring a very generic name such as "Sugar Coated Marshmallow Puffs."
The film studio The Asylum specializes in making low-budget movies that vaguely resemble recent blockbusters (dubbed MockBusters by film critics). Some examples include Pirates of Treasure Island, Snakes on a Train, The Da Vinci Treasure and Transmorphers.
Can't help but point out the absurd simularity between the name Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist. For those of you who still don't get it: The Sierra Mountain chain is a series of mountains and dew and mist are both types of surface condensation. Quite understandable, however, as both are made by Pepsi.
There's a legitimate electronics company whose name sounds like an example: Magnasonic
- This troper has seen one that's a blatant rip-off of NEC: A local legitimate electronics company called MEC (Malaysian Electronics Corp). He has also seen weirder brands like Panashiba and Tobishi.

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