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Tastes best with Plain Milk.

"Here we have a can of the world's most popular cola — no names, no lawsuits."

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, obscuring a real brand so that it can't be identified. Another technique is to make a lookalike that doesn't show the actual brand name — for instance, a bright-red soft drink can inscribed, in white letters, "Cola", or using similar-sounding or similar-meaning words: "McDaniels", "Burger Queen", and so on.

Under Canadian broadcast regulations, product placement is considered a form of payola and is strictly forbidden. To prevent even the appearance of product placement, 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 shows, but "Canadian content" regulations limit the number of those that can be shown.

In the UK, product placement was forbidden until February 2011, but there's also the issue of "undue prominence", wherein a particular brand is, outside of any product placement agreement, given excessive exposure (Mitchell and Webb noted this in great style with the conclusion that a porn scene about a satellite TV installer would have to be a gang-bang to ensure no single brand was given undue prominence). DJs on BBC radio will add that "other brands/suppliers of [product] are available" if someone says to buy their book on Amazon or Google for information, practically as a running gag.note 

Sometimes fictional products can become story elements in and of themselves, either as part of the "world background" of a show, or as running gags.

Films with blatant product placements, such as The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), usually have them obscured when they are syndicated.

In addition to Brand X, some movie and TV producers may choose to use discontinued products as a point of style. Quentin Tarantino is known for using boxes of discontinued cereal in his movies, such as "Fruit Brute" (Which has since been recontinued). Tommy Shelby smokes a discontinued cigarette brand in Peaky Blinders, which was popular during the timespan the show is set.

At one time this was a universal practice in advertising, allowing a marketer to compare his product to a competitor without actually naming the competitor and reminding the viewer of why he might prefer it. The competitor would often be referred to as "the leading brand", giving rise to the question, "if your product is so good, why is the other brand leading?" In the last two decades, advertising has gotten bolder, and it is more common to see a real competing product in an ad than not — or at least a minimally veiled reference to a competing product (ie, a detergent box with the basic design and color scheme of Tide, but no logo). The practice of explicitly naming the competition was arguably begun by the great McDonald's/Burger King ad wars of the late '70s and early '80s (specifically, in a Burger King commercial starring a then-four-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar). There was also the Pepsi Challenge where Pepsi ran ads showing in blind taste tests, people preferred Pepsi over Coke.

However, in some cases it may be mandatory. For example, in Germany it used to be against the law to compare your product to a competitor's product when it was identifiable. Even now, the "laws against unfair competition" allow only verifiable objective comparisons without diminishing the competitor, legally regulated to a point where advertisers rather take a pass on comparisons than risk exposing themselves to lawsuits.

In some kinds of advertisement, items other than the one advertised that would normally be used in its own branded packaging will be found in some kind of neutral or unbranded packaging. The most common examples of this are advertisements for cereals, in which milk will be poured from clear glass jugs rather than the carton or bottle it is sold in. It is probable that this is done in order to reuse the advertisement in different countries as much as for avoiding giving exposure to those other products.

Incidentally, the notion of using fake brands that resemble the real brand (Using a pear instead of an apple, for instance) is being seen by marketers as something that improves awareness of the real brand. Amusingly, they're calling it Product Displacement.

A Super-Trope to Bland-Name Product (where it's an obvious parody of an actual brand), Acme Products (any generic corporation that seems to supply everything a character, or entire cast, uses), A.K.A.-47.

Not to be confused with the band Brand X, the antagonistic faction in Foodfight! (though they are named after this trope) or Russell Brand's series on FX.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Apple Computer Parodies 
  • Many computers in fiction (especially cartoons) will prominently feature a logo consisting of some kind of fruit, usually a pear, as a reference to Apple Computer's various products. Some of them (especially during the early iMac's time) will also bear a strong resemblance in other ways:
    • Many of these will cross with Bland-Name Product by being called Pineapple brand computers.
    • Although they look somewhat different from the iMac, the Navis in Serial Experiments Lain are made by Tachibana General Labs (Tachibana translates to Mandarin Orange). Of course, there are also some non-disguised references to Apple computers, such as a (small) picture of an iMac with an Apple advertising slogan.
    • In Digimon Adventure, the brand of laptop Koushiro used was never named, but it looked like an iBook and had a pineapple symbol on it. Averted in the short Anime Movies, which all use real computers running a Windows 95 variant and are accurately branded as such.
    • A similar laptop shows up in Ouran High School Host Club, right down to the glowing pineapple logo.
    • The newspaper comic FoxTrot does this with the "iFruit" brand, whose computers were originally shaped like the fruits they're named after. At one point, Andy attempts to collect them as she would collect *ahem* "Bitty Babies".
    • The Cheat's computer in Homestar Runner is obviously a tangerine iMac DV. See below.
      • Which is later replaced, in the "redesign" e-mail, with either a G5 or first-generation Intel iMac.
    • Kevin & Kell has "carrots" whose logo is, of course, a multi-coloured carrot with a bite taken out of it. Steve Jobs is, consequently, a rabbit.
    • Rob in Get Fuzzy has a Pear laptop.
    • So does Stephan in Ozy and Millie, and his thoroughly resembles a tangerine iBook.
    • There's another show/film where the brand name on a "pear" computer was plainly visible: "Bosc." Points to the set-dresser who thought that one up.
    • Pear computers show up as a running gag in shows produced by Dan Schneider, such as Zoey 101 and iCarly. The latter expanded the Pear product line with other parodies of Apple products, including the PearPod, the PearPhone, and the PearPad (which is literally a pear-shaped tablet.)
      • A Sam & Cat episode lampshades this further, by having Sam point out that a show on TV can't use Pear computers, so they have to use Banana instead.
    • "Pear" notebooks show up in an unknown German TV series. In the same show, someone is looking things up on "Realpedia".
    • Probably the ur- and most famous example predates the iMac by over a decade: the Banana Junior computer from Bloom County, which became a character unto itself.
    • In Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, Rick uses an iBook-a-like laptop with a probably-suggestive banana in place of the Apple logo.
    • Adventure Time makes use of the "Pear Computer" Brand name in episode: "Hitman".
    • Gnomeo & Juliet featured another laptop computer with a banana on it.
    • One episode of Megaman NT Warrior showed Dr. Higgsby using a laptop with a strawberry logo.
    • One episode of Maya & Miguel featured yet another laptop with a pear icon.
    • In one episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers, Sealand is excitedly noticing that Iceland is being auctioned off while using a laptop with two cherries as its logo.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV features advertisements and an in-game website for Fruit Computers, whose logo is a bowl of fruit and released a phone that looks exactly like a banana-shaped iPhone.
    • Which (in GTA's usual outrageous sense of humor) has an app that can tell if you're pregnant when you pee on the phone. Grand Theft Auto V made the reference even more obvious with the iFruit 9iX, which has a design that's closely modelled on the iPhone 5C.
    • Every GTA game since III has done this, all of them with suggestive, pun-based or violent names, such as "Burger Shot" (Burger King), "Cluckin' Bell" (Taco Bell & KFC combined) and "Sprunk" (Sprite).
  • The online RPG Forum Warz has a store called Plum Computers with 3 products: the iPrune (standard desktop unit), the PruneBook (a laptop) and the PruneServ (a server).
  • There's an episode of the Disney version of Doug where the characters are locked in the school during a snowstorm and the Rich Bitch of the group pulls out a laptop to try to communicate with the outside world for help. While the laptop itself was pretty indistinct, the desktop environment it exhibited was unmistakably Apple's Classic Mac OS, with a Beet (a running gag in the series) in the place of the Apple on the top-left corner of the screen.
  • A Legion of Super-Heroes issue had Brainiac 5 decrying the primitive technology of 20th century computers. The computer's logo was a half-peeled banana, and the slogan was "Computers with appeal".
  • The BBC Radio 4 comedy Mind Your Own Business had Satsuma computers, which were derided as spending too much time being friendly, rather than just doing what they're told.
    • Of course, in the UK, as well as Apple, there was Apricot Computers, Acorn Computers (creators of the BBC Micro) and Tangerine Computer Systems (creators of Oric 1 and Atmos, an early rival to the Sinclair Spectrum).
  • League of Super Evil has Rotten Core, a manufacturer of gadgets and devices for villainous operations who has hardware designs and a retail presence very much like Apple.
  • The Simpsons has Mapple Computers, whose owner is named Steve Mobs.
  • Futurama has the Eyephone.
  • In Zootopia, Judy Hopps is often shown with her Carrot brand smartphone.
  • In Chicken Little Chicken Little's Dad has a Pear laptop in which he received much hate mail for his son's alleged mischief.
  • The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark: McQueen has a Pineapple home computer.

    Advertising 
  • The Pace Picante commercials has one person bringing out a jar of salsa that just says "Mexican Sauce" with the label in a tacky Mexican design. The other characters noticed the generic salsa is made in New York City.
    Everyone: NEW YORK CITY?!
  • At least one commercial for Wilkins Coffee (made by Jim Henson and starring proto-Muppets Wilkins and Wontkins, features Wontkins telling Wilkins that he'd like "Brand X." Wilkins then brands Wontkins with an "X"
  • A UK Pepsi Max ad states that 85% of Britons prefer Pepsi Max to "the best-selling cola", which is represented by a can with no markings on it ... but a very distinctive shade of red.

    Anime & Manga 

General:

  • "WcDonalds", a stand-in for the rather obvious, is a fast-food chain non-specific to any particular anime (the chain has made appearances from Inuyasha, where it was spelled "Wacdnalds", to the American-produced Megas XLR). Much like the above immediate example, anime "Brand X" brands are often created simply by switching or reversing a letter from their real-world counterparts ("Somy" and "Parasonic" have been known to pop up from time to time in various animes).
    • WcDonalds' most recent appearance, as of early August 2008, is in the new Rumiko Takahashi short anime It's A Rumic World, where it appears in its rarely seen fully spelled out form.
    • The upside down golden arches also appear in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, but this time the W stands for "Wonderland Burgers".
    • Zeta Gundam, however, has "McDaniels" hamburgers, complete with clown mascot. Since both of these are Universal Century shows, we have to assume that McDaniels and Wonderland Burger exist in the same universe and are competitors.
    • It's even made an appearance in Japanese porn, as an elaborate restaurant set with obsessively detailed uniforms for the young ladies involved to wear (or not wear, as the case may be).
    • As of 2024, WcDonalds has been Defictionalized.

By Title:

  • In the third Angelique OVA, there is a product logo that reads as "SQNY" ...but only if you are well-versed in the series' stylistic font which makes you wonder if this was just a dorky Easter Egg.
  • Azumanga Daioh has Abidas gear.
  • Fictional fast-food brand "Amigo Tacos" is used as a throwaway name in an early episode of the anime El Cazador de la Bruja. The name is brought back several times in later episodes, gaining a logo, official waitress uniform and annoying commercial jingle. Eventually an entire episode is set in an "Amigo Tacos" restaurant.
  • Chaos;Head has the search engine Deluoode and the online repository Wikipedofilia. Umm...
  • The U.S. [adult swim] release of Code Geass censored out the Pizza Hut logos that were used as Product Placement in the Japanese version. Online rumor has it that the U.S. branch of Pizza Hut didn't want to continue the product placement because "it's a show about terrorism." Cheese-Kun, the Japanese Pizza Hut mascot, was kept uncensored.
  • Death Note:
    • L and Light apparently both own laptops with bananas on them.
    • And Fanasonic tvs.
    • Also, if you look real closely, the search engine that Light uses is called "Generic". (It looks an awful lot like Google Image.)
    • L has an obvious iMac in addition to his obvious MacBook, though the logo looked more like a twisted-up "I."
  • In Diamond Daydreams Karin accesses the internet with her "Aivo" laptop.
  • Excel♡Saga had "Across 2000" (a parody of Windows 2000).
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure, Honoka has applied "PRE-Q BAN" brand adhesive bandages to at least two different people's minor wounds (this is a pun: "Pretty Cure" is sometimes known as simply "purikyua" [pronounced more or less "pre-cue"]).
  • Gravitation has Zenny's Restaurant. Like Denny's but more Zen.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ has an episode where Judau and Elpeo go shopping at "Ralph-Larren", a popular clothing boutique.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: In the episode where Heero deactivates the missiles at the New Edwards base, there's an "Intel Outside" sticker in the control room.
  • Haruka Nogizaka's Secret had Haruka excited to get a "PDS" or "Portable Dream Station". The visual representation made it some sort of crossbreed between a PSP and a DS.
  • Initial D had "Danrep", "Nisno", and the famous "TORENO" (which later became Trueno after they got the license)
  • Lovely★Complex has Koizumi's home console "Blay Ztation 2", where she plays her visual novels.
  • Minami-ke has Zamazon, among others.
  • My Bride is a Mermaid featured "Ningyonet Explorer", the mermaid web browser.
  • The first Negima! Magister Negi Magi anime has Asakura using the "Bagle" search engine.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: While later installments, such as the Rebuild movies, are more likely to use actual product placement, the original series used this all over the place; for instance, Asuka's game console of choice was marked "SECA" and Misato's favorite beer was "Yebichu" (instead of "Yebisu").
  • No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! has loads and loads of them: the obligatory WcDonalds, Cola-Cola, SterTully Coffee, Hera Hera Douga, search engine Yahuq!, football videogame Winners Eleven, and so on.
  • One Piece has the fake clothing brand Criminal as well as the Doskoi Panda brand which includes everything from shirts to footballs. Doskoi Panda even has two knockoff brands, Dosko1 Panda and Cyberpanda.
  • Ouran High School Host Club introduced the world to Hescafé brand instant coffee and Mational light bulbs.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has "Atzrbucks Coffee".
  • In the Pet Shop of Horrors anime there's an audition for a movie by Raramount Pictures.
  • Pokémon Adventures has iPods and Smart Phones, only with the Poke Ball logo on them.
  • The opening credits of Princess Nine include, in what is presumably Koshie stadium, advertisements for "Mitsuhishi", "Sont", and "Ranasonia", in fonts highly reminiscent of the Mitsubishi, Sony, and Panasonic brand-names.
  • The anime The Prince of Tennis has the main character drinking Ponta, though in the original manga it was actually Fanta.
  • In Sagrada Reset Sawako Sera’s “Candy Candy” lollipop is an obvious Brand X for a “Chupa Chups” lollipop.
  • In Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, the search engine "Qoogle" is used.
  • Skip Beat! has a Wos Burger (after Mos Burger, a popular Japanese chain).

    Comic Books 
  • Archie Comics can't say "Lucky Charms" and it ruins the joke, as referenced by The Comics Curmudgeon: [1]
  • Astro City:
    • "Beautie" -not "Barbie"- dolls, the basis for robotic superheroine Beautie. What else would a Gadgeteer Genius little girl make?
    • The very popular "Beefy Bob's" burger joints, good enough for superheroes on a low-profile date. The city also has an ample supply of "Astro-Mart" convenience stores.
  • Parodied in a French comic, Contes à dormir debout. A father is telling an updated version of "Aladdin" to his daughter:
    Father: A package fell off a truck from a famous brand of Swedish furnitures.
    Daughter: "A famous brand of Swedish furnitures"? Are you calling it like that because you can't say any names?
    Father: Of course not! Everyone speaks like that. Now, let me have a glass of this cola drink...
  • The DCU has lots of these, some of which only appear in one story (or in stories by one writer), while others get taken up across the board. The cola brands Soder (Brewed and bottled in Metropolis) and Zesti (a Gotham City favorite) have both had stories focused on them.
    • Soder also appeared in Superman: The Animated Series as a nod to the DCU.
    • Big Belly Burgernote  is the DC Universe's answer to fast food joints. Which allows parodies and in one instance, using a dead fat man for cover in a gun fight.
    • Hitman featured another burger joint called "Bucket Burger", which was also rife with parody(for example, almost everyone in the restaurant except for the title character and his buddy are obese slobs).
    • The other large fast food chain in the DCU is O'Shaughnessy's, which serves Irish inspired grub and is Robin Tim Drake's favorite fast food joint.
    • The DCU's leading current events magazine is named "Newstime".
    • More DC examples; WGBS is a media outlet in Metropolis, run by an evil nut job. LexCorp, of course, has its fingers in everything. WayneCorp is an easy one to go to when a writer needs a brand name. Then there's SunDollar coffee...
    • One or two issues of Birds of Prey reference Barbara Gordon and other characters bemoaning the ineffectiveness of the Curtains 98 operating system.
    • Originally averted with the Martian Manhunter's fondness for Oreos. Once it turned out he was literally addicted to them, they suddenly became "Chocos".
    • Metropolis is home of Galaxy Communications, owners of GBS (the Galaxy Broadcasting System) and its flagship Metropolis station WGBS. During the Bronze Age, Galaxy (and its owner, Morgan Edge) owned the Daily Planet and made Clark Kent the anchorman for WGBS' evening news.
    • The Funny Animal parallel world of Earth-C (now Earth-26) is home of various animal pun-named counterparts of real world brands and companies. Examples include "Wombat Communications" (owners of Earth-C's DC Comics) and the popular soft drink "Koala Cola."
  • A Disney Adventures comic involved Doug buying a "Brandexx" jacket, which becomes popular for a while until someone else starts wearing "Branday" which then becomes popular at "Brandexx"'s expense.
  • I Summoned Cthulhu to Fund My Kickstarter features a number of thinly-veiled parodies of indie comics, including Horny Elves (a parody of Glarien), Prophecy Lesbians (a parody of Pat Shand's Destiny, NY), and Fairy Tale Fucktape (a parody of Grimm Fairy Tales.)
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is full of these — Jhonen Vasquez seems to be fond of this trope, as it appears in Invader Zim as well. Taco Hell, the 24/7 with its Brain Freezies, the list goes on.
  • The Not Brand Echh title references how this is "Not Brand X".
  • Sam & Max's world is filled with bizarre products, especially in the storyline set in a grocery store. About the only recurring brand, though, is a mediocre generic beer called "Cheap, Foul-Smelling Beer".
  • The Spider-Man special "Skating on Thin Ice" features a cover where a group of young kids finds Spider-Man's secret stash of Beer-brand beer and Cigarettes-brand cigarettes, as well as a vial, syringe, and bottle of prescription tablets.
  • Tintin: Loch Lomond whisky, Captain Haddock's favorite brand. When The Black Island was redrawn in color, Loch Lomond replaced what was Johnnie Walker in the black-and-white version.
  • Almost everything in Watchmen is created by Veidt Enterprises or some sub-company. Of course, there is a more sinister reason behind this: the sales of these products help finance Adrian Veidt's plot.
  • In the German comic Werner: Played straight by fictional brands such as Coma Pils and parody brands like Happlage & Schnappe or Kastrat. Averted with most brand names, though, particularly vehicle brands and models, both existing and defunct (Horex, Harley-Davidson, Lanz, Hanomag, Bentley, Honda, Allgeier...), and beer brands (Flensburger, Faxe, shoving a bottle of Beck's into the fourth wall).

    Comic Strips 
  • Bloom County: Oliver Wendell Jones's Banana Junior 6000 computer bore a suspicious, if bright yellow, similarity to the original Macintosh. Except, of course, for its self-awareness, feet and propensity for troublemaking.
  • Dykes to Watch Out For has "Bounders Books and Muzak" instead of Borders Books and Music, etc. Interesting in that "Muzak" is itself the name of Muzak Holdings LLC which defends its trademark against genericizing of the word for "elevator music". Barney Miller, for example, used the word and it's censored out of syndicated reruns.
  • FoxTrot: Parody product and magazine names abound in the comic strip. There's a strip where the brand name on a bag of chips changed in every panel.
  • In Mark Tatulli's comic strip Heart of the City, the title character often plays with "Karlie and Ben" dolls.

    Films — Animation 
  • Brand X serves as the Big Bad of Foodfight!, a film focused on product mascots in a grocery store. Part of the film's message appears to be that robbing food of an iconic mascot removes its soul.
  • The makers of the Over the Hedge animated film decided to use only fictional brands (such as "Spuddies" canned potato crisps) for the junk food that was so important to the plot.
  • The Sky Crawlers features such products as Pops-Cola and Treasure soft drinks (with logos that resemble Coca-Cola and Pepsi respectively), Green Label beer and Leopard cars.
  • Toy Story couldn't get the rights to blow up an (original) G.I. Joe action figure, so they used "Combat Carl" instead.
    • However, they otherwise avert it: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Ken, Barbie, Slinky, Totoro and many more, were all used with permission of the respective copyright owners, as acknowledged at the end of the credits of each film.
      • Zig-Zagged with Barbie; for the first movie, Mattel refused to license the character to Pixar, and the script was written without her. Needless to say, they offered no opposition when Pixar approached them for the second film.
    • And played straight with Rex, who is a generic copy of the T. rex figure from the cult classic Dino Riders toyline.
  • In Turning Red, several of these can be seen at the Daisy Mart like "Cheez Eats" and "Cheezwats" crackers (Cheez-It) and "Bubble Bubble" gum (Dubble Bubble). Some brands on display are more generic like "Gprims" crackers, "Snack Time" snacks and "Trusted Brand" cold relief medication. However, the use of Daisy Mart itself is an aversion since it is a real Canadian convenience store chain.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Quentin Tarantino includes not only discontinued products, but Brand X references in all his films (most notably "Red Apple" cigarettes and "Big Kahuna" burgers) as a way of implying that they all take place in the same Verse. Or he's just too lazy to invent more of them.
  • Airplane! has a flashback with a stand in for Tupperware called Supperware.
  • In Batman (1989), the Joker announces his lethal tampering with Gotham City cosmetics with a mock commercial. Walking up to a living bound and gagged victim (a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen reads "Not An Actor"), he exclaims, "Uh-oh! He don't look happy. He's been using Brand X!" ("Oh No!") Then he walks to a corpse with a hideous Joker grin and says, "But with new Joker Brand, I get a grin, again and again!"
  • The 2000 remake of Bedazzled features the "Diablos" pro basketball team.
  • CarousHELL has Laurie posting on Chirper and one couple are huge fans of My Tiny Uni.
  • Cloverfield has the soft drink "Slusho", which was also used in its Viral Marketing campaign. As a Shout-Out, the bartender in Star Trek (2009) recommends Slusho to Uhura. Both films had JJ Abrams involved.
  • Parodied in Coming to America: Cleo's restaurant "McDowell's" seems like one of these, but it turns out that McDonald's also exists in the movie's universe, and they're desperately trying to build a legal case against him for abducting their brand.
    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.
  • The city in Dick Tracy is purposely designed to resemble a four-color Sunday comic strip brought to life, and as such, has no brand names. Tracy opens a can of chili that only has the word "chili" on the label, a medicine bottle has simply "aspirin" written on it, and a warehouse has a sign saying "Southside Warehouse" on it, and nothing else. The cars used had insignia and hood ornaments specifically made for the movie, both to look cool and avoid looking like any actual model.
  • Evil Dead: Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters: The Video Game might count, but he might not.
  • In the Harold Lloyd comedy Hot Water, the main character's new car is a Butterfly Six, a fictional model. In reality, the car used in the film is a Chevrolet Superior.
  • How High has BUFUnote  — "By Us, Fuck You!"
  • In It Should Happen to You, Gladys helps to sell Adams' Soap (generic white bar soap).
  • Roger Ebert on The Lonely Lady:
    Proper nouns are missing from this movie. It seems to exist in a generic alternative universe in which nothing has its own name. The Oscars are known as "these awards" or "the awards." After Pia and her first lover leave a movie, they have this conversation: "I liked him better." "I liked her better." No him or her is identified. This is the kind of conversation that results when a screenplay says, "They leave the theater and briefly discuss the movie," but the screenplay doesn't care what movie they saw.
  • The Matrix: Mouse states that the porridge eaten by the Nebuchadnezzar crew tastes just like "Tasty Wheat" does in the Matrix. This is apparently a Cream of White stand-in.
  • In Repo Man, every single consumer good is in plain white packaging with the name of the item in block letters across the front, such as "Beer", "Potato Chips", and even "Food." Generic products in the early 80s did actually use this kind of remarkably plain packaging. Of course, they weren't nearly so omnipresent as in the film.
  • Return of the Killer Tomatoes!: At the start, the characters all use the relentlessly generic items, until about halfway through when the film's "director" suddenly appears on-scene and announces that they don't have enough money to finish the flick, so they're selling product placements. From then on, the placements become ever-more numerous, overt and obnoxious. During a lengthy spiel for some Californian motorcycle dealership, the hero finally breaks down and asks the director if they have enough money to finish the thing. Pan over to a shot of the director partying down with hookers, booze, etc. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Go get 'em guys.."
  • The movie Small Soldiers shows that the main character's younger sister collects "Gwendy" fashion dolls. They are later recruited and animated as cannon fodder by the sentient action figures, after a request to go on leave with the plastic beauties is shot down.
  • The View Askewniverse has "Nails" cigarettes, "Chewlies" gum, and the entire Mooby corporate empire.
  • Les Visiteurs has the Dragonal sleeping pills. No such brand has ever existed.
  • In Youth in Revolt, there is a fast food restaurant called "McDanold's."

    Literature 

By Author:

  • Several in Sarah Dessen's novels, including Ume.com (Facebook) and Gas/Gro (7/11 or QT). The Facebook imitator even has a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Mark Zuckerberg (i.e. a nerdy guy who started the site in college).

By Title:

  • Animorphs both averts and invokes this trope. Jake having a Sega game console is mentioned, (though it's just a 'console' in the re-release to help with relevance issues) but there's the fictional internet provider Web Access America, which seems to allude to either America Online, Microsoft or both. Since it's founder turns out to be a cannibal serial-killing alien, they probably didn't want to attach that to any real person. There's also a Yeerk pool entrance in a McDonald's, though see below under "Live-Action Series."
    • Marco mentions having a Playstation in later book. And there are names of various real games mentioned (Doom, NFLBlitz, Madden, etc.)
  • The plot of Airframe is centered around a fictional plane manufacturer named Norton Aircraft.
  • In Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., feminine supplies are given the brand names Private Lady and Teenage Softies, although Tampax is mentioned once.
  • The Berenstain Bears does this with names like E-Bear (for Ebay) and Pawbook (for Facebook).
  • The all-monster world of City of Devils features a number of products, several of which gets vintage-style advertisements in the back of the novel. These include Pharaoh brand bandages for mummies, Ocutol drops for crawling eyes, the Oldsmobile Brainwave for brainiacs, and the Para-sol for vampires and gremlins.
  • In Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, Roland and his companions from Earth find themselves from time to time in parallel versions of Earth distinguishable only by the fact that the popular brand names of consumer products are different (Nozz-a-La Cola, Shinnaro cameras, Takuro automobiles, etc.)
    • Consistently mentioned in a few of his other works (The Stand and Kingdom Hospital, for example) for the sake of The 'Verse.
  • In Dear Mr. Henshaw, the narrator mentions that he lives near a "Taco King" and a "Softee Freeze".
  • In his book Down And Out In Paris And London, George Orwell worked as a dishwasher at the "Hôtel X." This was the Hôtel de Crillon.
  • Good Omens usually sticks with actual brand names, but a side plot involves a massive international burger chain known as "Burger Lord". Since the entire corporation is (generally unwittingly) in the employ of Famine, Horseman of the Apocalypse this is probably for the best.
  • The sneakers that Stanley gets accused of stealing in Holes are actually a brand called Brand X with red crosses on the back.
  • In George Orwell's How the Poor Die, he names the hospital at which he was treated "Hôpital X." According to The Other Wiki, the Hospital was "the Hôpital Cochin."
  • In The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, the main character works for the EBC (English Broadcasting Company). It gets extensively lampshaded — a Running Gag is that every character is introduced saying "don't you mean BBC?", and later gets subverted, when the government takes over the media and the narrator explicitly mentions that the EBC and BBC are now one and the same.
  • In Class Dis-Mythed from Myth Adventures, the grand prize on a CrystalVox reality show is an executive position at a major cross-dimensional corporation: Brandex. Everyone knows their products.
  • Taken to dystopian, World of Silence levels in The Pendragon Adventure book 8, The Quillan Games. Stores have names like "CLOTHING", "FOOD", and "HEALTH CARE", all written in the same font because they're run by the MegaCorp Blok.
  • Rubber Girl: McDaffy's was a restaurant with a name similar to McDonald's. However, unlike McDonald's, McDaffy's has a waitress.
  • These Words Are True and Faithful: The characters' online activities take place on "a career networking site," "a popular social networking site," and "a social-media site for people into fetishes."
  • In Don DeLillo's White Noise, there is a shopping aisle full of products with generic packaging — funny because the rest of the novel is full of real brand names.

    Live-Action TV 

General:

  • When characters on '80s American sitcoms read magazines, the back cover frequently had an ad for "Walt's Wintergreen" gum, which bore a resemblance to Wrigley's Spearmint ads of the time.
  • Cooking Shows in general do this somewhat frequently — Rachael Ray even went so far as to have completely redesigned packaging (presumably with in-jokes known only to the staff) for numerous seasons of 30 Minute Meals. Averted, however, by Giada De Laurentiis, who is a very big fan of Trader Joe's products.
  • Finder-Spyder is a stand-in for Google in shows such as CSI, Dexter, Heroes and Prison Break
  • French humorists "les nuls" made a fake ad where X stands for X-rated. Brand X washing powder shows sex positions on its packaging.

By Title:

  • On 24, a Fox show, the characters watch one of two news networks: Fox News Channel, or the CNN-like "CNB."
  • Virtually all of the products in The Adventures of Pete & Pete, from Kreb of the Loom underwear to the family's Krebolet, are made by KrebStar.
  • On All in the Family, Archie always drank a generic looking can of beer.
  • Animorphs: In the books (see above), one entrance to the Yeerk pool is in a McDonald's, and the code to get in is ordering a "Happy Meal with extra happy." In the TV series, it's changed to a place called Tom's Burgers and the code is ordering a "cheeseburger, hold the cheese."
  • Yet more BBC, in The Apprentice many of the candidates have worked for major companies in the past, but it is described as stuff like "developing markets for a major international coffee company."
  • Are You Being Served? had Grace Brothers, a parodic stand-in for Harrods.
  • The BBC's policy is actually quite inconsistent. For every instance of a Brand X there's a passing reference to an actual product, often an alcoholic beverage, that's too fleeting to qualify as Product Placement.
  • Cans of soda on The Big Bang Theory are clearly designed to mimic real brands, but with HD one can clearly see that they are drinking "Diet Cola" (styled like the Diet Coke logo), "Z-un" (styled like the 7-Up logo), and a brand with literally no name but a perfect copy of Sprite's interlocking-fruits symbol.
  • When an empty cereal box was required to demonstrate something on Bill Nye the Science Guy, they would usually whip out Science-brand Frosted Corn Shards, which seem to be Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in a red box with no mascot.
  • The kids' magazine programme Blue Peter used to have a craft feature which usually required cereal boxes, empty drinks bottles and so forth... all with the names obscured, because the BBC, being publicly funded, didn't allow any commercial product placement. Sometimes it was patently obvious what the obscured brand was — only the lettering would be blanked out on a cornflake box, leaving the Kelloggs' rooster visible. Famously, most projects included "sticky tape", known to everyone else as Sellotape or Scotch Tape, and "sticky-backed plastic" (known to everyone else as Fablon). "Sticky tape" is now called Sellotape, though, now the producers have realised that the name was well and truly genericised. "Sticky-backed plastic", however, stuck so deep in the public psyche that now it's used as the name for the stuff instead of the brand.
  • The Brady Bunch: In the episode "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor," where the Bradys are chosen to star in a television commercial for the laundry detergent Safe, all the soap names are "Brand X." Besides Safe, other detergents the Bradys have used (to varying levels of success) included Champ the Dirt Fighter, Clear & Bright, Help and their current detergent, Best. In the wind-up segment, the Bradys are given –- as a consolation for their work –- dozens of crates containing Safe.
    • One of Robert Reed's points in his negative critique of this episode was that the use of the "soap names" –- which Carol names off, in discussing with Mike on whether to star in the commercial –- were clichéd (or in Reed's words, an "obvious writer's technique").
    • In the later episode "Law & Disorder" (aired a season later), Bobby can be seen dumping a whole box of Safe into the washing machine. (He was trying to wash his good suit after dirtying it while trespassing in an abandoned house to rescue a classmate's kitten.)
  • Breaking Bad has a premium brand of tequila known as Zafiro Añejo, which was invented by the producers because they could not find any actual brand willing to put their product in a scene where everyone who drinks it dies after a few minutes (due to having been poisoned), although it's been noted that the bottle design resembles that of the "Hardy Perfection Fire" Cognac.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Trick orders a "medium diet soda" at a drive-thru window without actually specifying what soda in the Season 3 episode "Faith, Hope & Trick."
  • In The Casual Vacancy, the stolen TV sets stored in the Weedons' house have the fictitious brand "Sandoko" prominently displayed.
  • The brand(s) of beer on the tap at Cheers was never named, although there were fleeting glances of the packaging of at least one real beer brand.
    • One episode' has Rebecca boasting of the new TV the bar is buying with a "direct hookup" to "the cable sports channel".
    • In "The Bar Stoolie", Cliff is wearing one of those novelty hats with a can holder on each side and a rubber straw. He has two cans of beer in his hat. Each can says only "Beer".
  • The Chef At Home seems to be a casualty of this. All of his ingredients are in glass jars, and he refers to them as such.
  • Chopped gives generic names for the mystery ingredients, such as "Puffed Rice Cereal" for Rice Krispies. Packaged products are also usually repackaged in generic Chopped containers or, in the case of sealed cans and jars, have any identifying labels replaced.
  • Chuck works at "Buy More" (Best Buy), who is in competition with "Large Mart" (Walmart).
    • Large Mart also has a strong resemblance to Costco. The Nerd Herd is comparable to Best Buy's Geek Squad.
    • Chuck also debadges non-Toyota cars.
  • Community uses a lot of the standard fake brand props in its vending machines and cafeteria scenes, though one credits sequence brings the trope into the forefront by having Leonard do an online review of Let's potato chips.
  • In Coronation Street, the local shop does not sell any goods or publications the viewer would recognise (although with relaxation of Product Placement regulations, ITV may see a nice little earner here). The Cloud Cuckoolander Mary has been seen stoking her interest in the occult by buying a magazine called The Inexplicable. (And not, perhaps, Fortean Times).
  • On CSI, many crimes or events happen at the Tangiers hotel/casino, which doesn't actually exist.
    • The Tangiers was originally created for the gangster film Casino as a stand-in for The Sands (though unlike its real world equivalent, the Tangiers was demolished in the wake of the mob trials, which precludes the possibility of any continuity with CSI). What's strange, though is that CSI has also mentioned The Sands on occasion, and also the Rampart (although the fictional Rampart was demolished in season 7, while its real life counterpart still stands.)
  • Non-Canadian Degrassi viewers can almost make a game out of betting on what's Brand X and what's a real but Canada-only brand.
  • Irish children's television strand The Den often held contests for prizes such as "a games console", displaying an image of the product without naming it. Humorously subverted by co-host Dustin The Turkey, who had a tendency to interject with things like "Whayya mean a 'games console'? It's a PlayStation. Are ya blind, Ray?".
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "Terror of the Autons" — the murderous Ugly Cute Auton doll is clearly supposed to be one of the Troll dolls that were a big fad in the 70s, but with the design altered.
    • In early episodes of the new series, Rose tries looking for information about the Doctor on search-wise.net, a domain name intentionally reserved for use as a Brand X search engine.
    • Additionally, Rose works for the fictional department store 'Henricks.'
  • Many shows produced by Dan Schneider such as Drake & Josh featured Yatsabishi-brand electronics, in addition to the Pear-brand electronics example noted in the Apple section.
    • Josh can seen playing his Gamesphere in several episodes
    • In another episode Megan asks Josh to give her her Mintendo GS back.
    • Many characters reference the restaurant "BF Wings".
  • In Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray complains that it took Daddy three days to assemble a beautiful Swedish bed for daughter Ally. Evidently IKEA didn't pay nearly enough for a plug.
  • Firefly has 'Blue Sun' products just about everywhere. They might be a bit more significant to the plot than normal examples, though...
  • On FlashForward (2009), badges are generally removed from cars — a common enough practice, but this show is particularly blatant, in that Ford cars have a conspicuous oval gap where the badge was taken out.
  • Food Network Challenge frequently has challengers working with "puffed cereal treats". Rice Krispies didn't even jump on the bandwagon when they broke a world record sculpting with the stuff.
  • Frasier is not a man who is practical or handy. When setting up his new psychiatric practice, he says to his father that he beleives the high suicide rate in Sweden is due to frustration and deep angst at not being able to figure out "Stockholm Design"'s instruction leaflet for self-assembly office chairs. Otherwise it sounds pretty much IKEA.
  • Friends:
    • Joey apparently enjoys "Nickers Bars".
    • And Ross uses Uberweiss laundry detergent.
  • The way they rebranded products on Full House was amusing (Mountain Do, Shesta Cola, Sarf Color-Safe Bleach, Ail Laundry Detergent, to name but a few).
  • Starting in Season 2, Glee introduced a coffee shop, possibly a chain, called the Lima Bean as a date location for Kurt and Blaine. It's both a reference to the place where the show is set (and its correct pronunciation) and a pretty obvious stand-in for Starbucks.
  • Alton Brown on Good Eats also used "That drink powder" in an episode about pickles. He had a guy in a red glass burst through a wall in order to "tell" us what it was. Alton then remarked "Aren't you supposed to be a pitcher?"
    • Alton Brown is also a big fan of Brand X and "Greeking" (as the process is more formally called). In a "behind the scenes" episode of Good Eats he explains the process behind "Greeking." That said, it's always obvious what grocery store he's shopping at (either Kroger, Publix, or Harry's/Whole Foods, depending on how old the episode is), and episodes before season 5 don't bother with the greeking.
  • The Good Wife has ChumHum, a Google-like search engine. Subverted in that it's later mentioned that Google also exists in the show, but no one is shown actually using it.
  • Possibly a case in Gracepoint when compared to the original British show Broadchurch. Early in the show, the police are trying to keep it from the public that the boy's death is not an accident. Ellie accidentally lets this fact slip to her nephew, a reporter, who immediately posts it online. The British show has the nephew use Twitter (causing David Tennant's character to enter the police station screaming "Bloody Twitter!"), while the American show uses a fictional online news site instead.
  • A public phone is seen with symbols for the fictitious 'QLD Connect' covering the real Telstra logo on Harrow.
  • The BBC's policy was mercilessly spoofed on at least one episode of Have I Got News for You:
    Jeremy Clarkson: It makes Irish stout taste like a chocolate milkshake.
    Paul Merton: Is Irish stout some kind of relation to Guinness?
    Ian Hislop: The BBC frowns on product placement.
    Guest: What's that can of Pringles doing on there then? (points at the Wheel of News, which sure enough has a Pringles can on it)
    Merton: Maybe he'll refer to them as one of Britain's most popular concave crisps.
    • Another example of this was on arts and crafts show, Make Shift. One of the presenters was making some kind of food product, using "a chocolatey caramel nougat bar". Or a Mars bar to the rest of the world.
  • Home Improvement:
    • All of the tools shown off in Tool Time are from Binford Tools, which is also a sponsor of Tool Time. Oddly, using this trope turns Tim's "home improvement" show into a glorified infomercial.
    • The show also does this with some non-tool products in the background, such as "Nickers" and "Runch" candy bars.
  • Lampshaded in an episode of House. House, while being hypnotized by Chase, expresses his dislike for "'Beer' brand beer" when presented with a row of generic bottles. There are also bottles of "Liquor" brand liquor. (This could be interpreted more as a statement about which details people tend to remember. He didn't care which alcohol it was, so he didn't remember it as a specific brand.)
    House: There's nothing worse than drinking Beer brand beer.
    • Of course, he didn't remember much else either, as everybody was a faceless.
  • This was subverted in the 80s science/maths TV series How 2?, starring Carol Vordermann, which regularly featured jars of "chocolate beans." On one occasion, it was commented: "We won't name [the product] as we've already given Smarties too much free advertising".
  • I Bet You Will (reality show dare on MTV) uses "I Bet You Will" paint, etc.
  • In this clip of I've Got a Secret, Henry Morgan jokes that Soupy Sales (who is introduced as "Mister X") is the maker of 'Brand X'
  • JAG: 2nd season episode "Heroes" had a hamburger chain called Beltway Burgers. This restaurant continued into NCIS.
  • In Kingdom Hospital, there's a Nozz-a-La vending machine prominently on display. It's a minor plot point within the series: in the final episode, it becomes a Pepsi vending machine (implying that the hospital's weirdness is "cured").
  • Law & Order loves this trope. Probably because many of its episodes are Ripped from the Headlines.
    • Though this trope doesn't apply when referring to their bankroller — for instance, reporters will have NBC branded microphones, with anyone else being with unlikely-numbered news organizations such as Channel 23 or News 46. There was also an interesting exchange during a bust when mobsters were caught flat-footed watching TV:
    Det. Briscoe: "MSNBC, huh? Your father would've had the game on."
    • Of course there are two things consistent about the L&O universe; that the equivalent of the Post is the Ledger (which was also the paper in the short-lived newsbiz Spin-Off Deadline), while the all-encompassing New York University/Columbia University campus is known as Hudson University.
      • Hudson University is also referenced in an episode of Without a Trace
      • Law & Order also had the New York Sentinel, its version of the New York Times.
    • Law & Order fairly consistently used the name "B-Friendz.com" for their version of Facebook and MySpace, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit used "Another Youniverse" for their "Second Life" analog.
    • Averted in the 2010 Spin-Off Law & Order: LA, where Facebook was name-dropped in the very first episode, while in previous episodes of the series generic substitutes like "Youspace" were used in its place.
  • In a variation, when Life After People did an episode on food, they specifically address the Urban Legend that "this cream-filled snack cake" would remain edible for thousands of years. Presumably the makers of Twinkies didn't want their product associated with images of decaying meat or roaches and rats taking over abandoned supermarkets, as the program dutifully avoids naming "this snack cake" or showing its label.
  • Lost uses a similar approach with the Dharma Initiative food supplies, with most of the food being in blank white packaging labeled with the Dharma logo and a description of the food inside. (E.g. "DHARMA Ranch Dressing")
  • Mad Men spectacularly averts this. Sterling Cooper may be fictional, but they've done stuff or tried to do stuff for real companies (And yes, many of these clients paid handsomely to be on the show):
    • Pampers
    • Kodak — Calling a kind of slide projector a Carousel was apparently Don Draper's idea.
    • American Airlines, an attempted grab for their contract of that airline, which is trying to get good publicity back after the Flight 1 disaster of 1 March 1962. In the show, Pete Campbell's father is a victim of that crash.
    • Mohawk Airlines, who are bumped off the client list for the American Airlines attempt.
    • Bacardi
    • The American Cancer Society, after they lose Lucky Strike
    • Heineken
    • And of course the finale credited Don with a real-world advertising campaign, Coke's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing".
    • Also worth mentioning is that the show isn't averse to actual Product Placement: a bottle of Smirnoff has crept its way into the series as a semi-permanent fixture in Roger Sterling's new office.
    • DVD commentary reveals that the production team always uses period-accurate real-world alcohol bottles, with one exception: A real brand is never used in a drinking-and-driving situation. Mad Men being Mad Men, there are a lot of these.
  • The Masters of Horror episode "The Screwfly Solution" had plenty of examples, like "East Coast Airlines" and "Flazzle Cola" (in a red can, no less), and in the shop scenes they make sure to keep the camera zoomed out (though a Budweiser sign comes up in the edge of the shot, so they forgot at least one thing). They also have nameless "Kidney Beans" cans and an internet search engine with no marker at all.
  • The Middle Man uses Captain Ersatz of recognizable products and gives them names that are different but still similar enough to invoke familiarity with the actual product they're spoofing or implying.
  • Mimpi Metropolitan: It's only seen briefly, but the brain vitamins that Pipin bought in episode 45 is named simply "Herbal Vitamins".
  • The Morseverse does this, especially with Oxford University colleges. This actually started in the novels — when Colin Dexter wanted to write a story about the shady goings-on in academia, he chose not to use the name of a real college. Lonsdale — where plotting seems to be more important than teaching — was the result. Over time, more of these have come up to the point where there are now quite a few of them. Some, such as Wolsey, are obvious stand-ins for real ones (in this case, Christ Church), others less so.
  • A few episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured products related to the movies the SOL crew watch: Wild Rebels Cereal, Mighty Jack dog food, Basil Rathbone dog treats (with bits of Nigel Bruce!). There have also been some products not related to the movies: in one episode, Joel was eating Captain Ron cereal, and who can forget Cowboy Mike's Ricochet Barbecue Sauce? (It's BOLD!). Oddly averted in the season six finale, where Dr. Forrester and Frank enjoy their Chinese take-out with cans of TAB (a diet soda made by the Coca-Cola company that used to be fairly prevalent until the advent of Diet Coke.)
  • When the MythBusters use an off-the-shelf consumer item in examining a myth, they usually cover it with a plain white wrap featuring the "MythBusters" logo in black. (In one episode, while testing a myth about using vodka to clean a bathroom, the tester actually wrote the words "Brand X" on the wall.)
    • One of the few times they ever break from this practice is in the "Diet Coke and Mentos" testing, using the name of both soda and candy directly, in part because everyone in the world knows the phenomenon by that name and calling it the "Diet Soda and Candy" episode would have seemed patently absurd. The decision seems to have been made only during post-production, however; while graphics and the narrator use the brand names often, anyone actually on-camera always says "diet soda" or "candy" and all the labels are still taken off.
    • In addition, certain chemicals mentioned in narration are censored due to fears the audience will try to recreate the experiments at home; instead of "bleep", the audience hears a random animal noise. Lampshaded entertainingly in at least one episode:
      Kari: OK, we're gonna add a half ounce of [hee haw] to an ounce of [cock-a-doodle-doo] slowly!
      Narrator: When you add donkey to rooster, you get a violent reaction.
    • One specific example involves Adam holding up two bottles of chemicals for the camera, with — of course — blurred labels.
      Adam: This ingredient is made of blur. And this has some blur in it too. Blur is very dangerous. You don't want to mix blur with blur.
      • In the above examples the chemicals being mixed tend to be dangerous when brought together; the example with Kari is used to make gun cotton, while the "blur with blur" were some of the additional components used to make properly reactive thermite. Besides being particularly dangerous to try at home there are probably federal and local laws governing/forbidding their use and procurement without licences. (Regarding the thermite components: Aluminum powder and iron oxide were already mentioned, so these aren't the two items; plus, at least one of the substances indicated is clearly a liquid of some kind.)
    • They also blur out commercial logos on people's clothing. In one memorable example, this (evidently) included the manufacturer of Kari's diving suit, turning her entire chest into one big blur.
      • Which is considered a felony in at least 49 states...
      • They sometimes use other methods to block out logos, such as duct tape (which appeared on the front of Tory's baseball cap several times).
      • In the host segments of a few episodes, Tory is visibly wearing a shirt that has been turned inside-out.
    • During the episode about drunkenness myths, despite the labels being obscured, it was still clear that Jamie was drinking Gray Goose vodka, and Adam 12-year-old Glenlivet scotch.
    • For the first several seasons, the manufacturer logos on the regular M5 Industries fleet vehicles were unobscured. The big GMC box truck even had a former owner's company name plainly visible (the vinyl letter decals had been removed, the sticky residue hadn't and was gray with grime. Must've driven Jamie up the wall.)
    • What about the Home Depot orange buckets used in multiple episodes? Sure the logos might be out of focus, but anyone who has seen one of those buckets in a store will recognize them immediately.
  • NCIS:
    • In the episode "Doppelgänger", the case hinged in part on two different brands of cigarettes: Triboros, and Llamas (the latter in a package resembling Camel cigarettes).
    • While not a product, one of the members of NCIS is showing around a bunch of boys, where he and all of the boys are wearing the standard tan outfit with handkerchief over the neck and troop number in red and white, of the Boy Scouts of America, but in the show, one of the kids admits they are a Junior Ranger.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide greeked laptop computers using stickers with the logos of their respective fictional schools.
  • Odd Squad has the Shmumber brand, which adorns everything in the show from juice boxes to magazines to everything in between, and even owns a hotel in the Toronto area as well as an oil change station. However, it's not simply there just for filler — "Fistful of Fruit Juice" reveals that Shmumber Enterprises, the company behind the brand, was initially started by Yucks Shmumbers, who was Oprah's business partner back in the 1800s when they ran a fruit stand together. While Oprah would go on to be an Odd Squad Investigation agent of Precinct 13579 (and eventually, its newest Director), Yucks continued to run the fruit stand, hiring Olga, an ex-agent, to work alongside her. In the Odd Squad: World Turned Odd movie, the Shmumbers Incorporated factory is introduced, with Chuck Shmumbers, the company's CFO, mentioning that he and Yucks have been friends with Oprah since the 1700s. The brand also serves as a stand-in for real-life products, such as adorning Heinz ketchup and French's mustard bottles in "Agent Oksana's Kitchen Nightmares".
  • Subverted, possibly unintentionally, in the episode "Mortality Paradox" of The Orville. Atlantic Airways sounds like a generic airline name, but it's actually the national airline of the Faroe Islands. They use a different logo and fly differnet planesnote  though.
  • The aforementioned brand seen on Peaky Blinders is Sweet Afton, which also appeared in The Royal Tenenbaums when they were still being made and sold.
  • Odd example on Peep Show — Jeremy refers obliquely to a real-life advert for a popular cold and flu remedy, while Mark is shown pouring said brand into a cup, with the logo obscured... at which point Jeremy offers to "bring your Lemsip in for you". Didn't seem to be a lampshading, or deliberate joke — just odd.
    • It may be that mentioning the semi-genericised Lemsip is acceptable, but that showing Lemsip-brand Lemsip was undue prominence. In some countries, there's a rule against showing a product and mentioning its name at the same time. So there's no problem if they're mentioning Lemsip, they just have to obscure it.
  • In Queer as Folk (US), Michael Novotny works at K-Mart The Big KQ
  • Used in Red Dwarf, in both variations. In the first series, everything on the ship comes in plain grey packaging with just a label. After that, fake brand names are used (such as Leopard Lager).
  • A Justified Trope within the context of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Due to legal reasons, witches cannot conjure up brand name products; trying so only results in Brand X knock-offs such as "Popsi" and "Butterthumbs".
  • Spicks and Specks blurred out the branding of a Mr. Whippy icecream van when it was playing Greensleeves. The ABC prohibits product placement, but it's been the target of lampshading every now and then.
  • In the pilot for Street Hawk, the protagonist can be seen drinking "Beer" brand beer (styled to look more or less like a Coors).
  • Nearly completely averted in Survivors. Hung looter in a Netto? Check. Decomposing corpse in McDonald's? Check.
  • Subverted for laughs on Taskmaster;
    Alex: ...a box of curly cheese puffs, which I just said to avoid saying the brand name 'Wotsits'."
  • Another instance of the BBC not allowing product placement was duly mocked in an episode of Top Gear, where the three presenters (and The Stig) participate in a 24-hour endurance race in their modified BMW. As a final touch, they wanted to put product placements all over their car, but BBC regulations prevented them from doing so — so they made up their own, including such products as Peniston Oil and Larsen Biscuits (which appears as "Penis" and "Arse Biscuits" when the door is open).
  • Wizards of Waverly Place has an episode near the start of the second season where a frisbee is referred to as a "plastic flying disk". Possibly a lampshading, since the phrase is gratuitously awkward compared to several they could have used instead.
  • The X-Files has the Cigarette Smoking Man, among other characters who smoke, preferring the extremely popular but fictional Morley brand of cigarette. There is even an episode of the show titled Brand-X featuring the company that makes the cigarettes. Morleys apparently get around, because they are used all over the place in television, even amongst series that have no connection to each other. The Other Wiki has a list of them.

    Merchandising 
  • When licensed NASCAR products are released to mass retail, the logos of beer companies are replaced with generic logos including the driver's name, due to U.S. law prohibiting the advertising of alcohol to minors. This is not the case with high-end "adult collectibles," however.
    • There's a cigarette lighter shaped like Rusty Wallace's Miller Lite car with the brewery's logo replaced by his first name.
    • The high-end collectible market isn't immune to cigarette advertisement restrictions though — the L&M logos are missing from some models.
    • When Mark Martin's sponsorship was switched to Viagra, the notice "Ages 21 and up" on the Revell model box where the "tahrs and awl"-sponsored-car kits had "Ages 10 and up". If you need Viagra before 21, you're probably worried about things other than family-unfriendly logos...
  • There is a Listerine commercial that actually says that "people prefer it two-to-one over the leading brand." To be fair, this can be interpreted charitably to mean "the leading brand made by a competitor." But if it's possible for "the leading brand" to mean this, then that might be the answer to the question, "Why isn't your brand the leading brand?" Maybe it sometimes is the leading brand!
  • In the classic, "Ancient Chinese Secret" commercial for Calgon water softener, the product is demonstrated with a box labeled simply "Detergent".

    Music 
  • Flipper parodied this Trope with their first album which was titled Album: Generic Flipper and featured a front cover that simply had those three words and a fake bar code with the word FLIPPER instead of numbers. The Cassette version had Cassette: Generic Flipper on the cover instead.
  • Public Image Ltd. released an album called Album (or Cassette and later Compact Disc) as a nod towards the Flipper parody, designing the album art to resemble a generic product from the Ralph's chain of grocery stores.
  • The original version "Lola" by the Kinks features the line "where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca Cola," which had to be edited to "cherry cola" for radio release in the UK; American radio seems to play both versions though.
    • At some point, British stations began alternating between both versions as well.
  • The song "Fabulous" from High School Musical 2 originally contained the lines, "Fetch me my Jimmy Choo flip flops/Where is my pink Prada tote?/I need my Tiffany hair band/Then I can go for a float". In the video game "Sing It", Jimmy Choo became... eh, something... else?, "Prada" became "leather", and "Tiffany" became "sparkly".
  • Pink Floyd's "It Would Be So Nice" originally contained the line "Have you ever read the Evening Standard?" As this was the name of a legitimate English newspaper, they were forced to re-record the line with the fictitious 'Daily Standard.'
  • In their later career, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees had a drum kit that replaced the band's logo on the bass drum with DRUM printed on a white background.
  • The Amazing Rhythm Aces' hit "Third Rate Romance" had the line "they went to the Holiday Inn". The radio edit changed the line to "they went to the Family Inn".
  • They Might Be Giants had to name one of their songs “AKA Driver” instead of “NyQuil Driver” in order to avoid a lawsuit. The lyrics stayed the same, but were not printed in the liner notes of John Henry.

    Pinball 
  • In The Big Lebowski, instead of Kahula, the ingredients for the White Russian are cream, vodka, ice, and coffee liqueur.
  • Jurassic Park (Stern) has a playfield toy clearly intended to be a Jeep that official material exclusively refers to as a "Jungle Adventure Vehicle".
  • The premium model of Stranger Things has a backbox depicting Dustin holding a "CHOCOLATE" candy bar, a reference to the important role 3 Musketeers bars play in the second season of the original series.

    Puppet Shows 
  • One episode of That Puppet Game Show involved Ian offering Eddie a chocolate bar, which just said "Chocolate" on the wrapper. The weird part was that the wrapper was purple and the word was written in a swirly handwriting font, so it looked almost exactly like a Cadbury's Dairy Milk bar.
  • Hooper's Store from Sesame Street carries a full assortment.

    Radio 
  • Several BBC Radio 1 DJs, as a result of the BBC not allowing product placement, often say things like "generic MP3 player" rather than iPod. Some do this so frequently that callers also use such phrases.
  • Radio comedians Hudson & Landry often made use of "Ajax" companies, like Ajax Airlines or Ajax Mortuary.

    Toys 
  • LEGO has a small few recurring instances of this trope, most prominently the Octan petrol company, whose branding was pretty much everywhere in LEGO City and racing games and sets up until 2001, and still crops up on occasion. LEGO also averts it in that they regularly produce licenced promotional sets based on real vehicles used by real companies, the most commonly recurring being Shell and Maersk.
    • LEGO used to make regular sets featuring Shell (or Exxon in the United States, from the late 1970s to about 1985-86 when Shell sets became available stateside). Back when they made HO-scaled vehicles, they included Shell and Esso branded vehicles.
    • In the LEGO Stranger Things set, the RPG book is simply called Rules, because Dungeons & Dragons is a Hasbro property.

    Video Games 
  • Battlefield 2142: The Medic/Assault's first aid box contains painkillers named "Dicepirin", among other things.
  • "Creme-filled snack cakes" in BioShock.
  • The Darkside Detective:
    • The summer camp where the scout troop jamboree is held is named Camp Site. McQueen reflects that this is better than the runner-up names, which included several variations on warnings like "Camp This Is Where You Die", and one name that features a double entendre about pegging.
    • In The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark, one puzzle involves a "JoyChild" portable gaming device, which resembles a Gameboy.
  • After Electronic Arts bought the exclusive rights to the National Football League license in 2005, leaving Madden NFL as the only officially-licensed NFL video game, there were a number of football games released in the latter half of the '00s that made use of fictional leagues, teams, and players, many of them made by former competitors to EA Sports who had just lost their NFL licenses due to the EA deal.
    • Midway Games' Blitz: The League, a Spiritual Successor to their NFL Blitz series, features a fictional league of eighteen teams known simply as "The League", with some of its teams coming from cities that don't have NFL teams in real life (Las Vegas, Portland, Orlando, Milwaukee, and in the sequel Vancouver and Mexico City). Notably, the lack of the NFL license also meant that Midway was free to create a far more 'extreme' game than the NFL would've allowed, with such gameplay mechanics as feeding steroids to your players, gambling on games to earn more money, and sending prostitutes to the opposing team's room the night before in order to wear them out before the game, as well as a story mode written by former writers from Playmakers (ESPN's sole foray into scripted drama, which they canceled when the NFL protested its depiction of its fictional football league) that featured notorious NFL bad boy Lawrence Taylor as the voice of the game's villain. It's not for nothing that this game and its sequel are the only football games to be rated M for Mature.
    • Visual Concepts, makers of the NFL 2K series before losing the license, later made All-Pro Football 2K8 as a Spiritual Successor, featuring the fictional "All-Pro League" (or APL). Since EA's exclusivity deal only covered active players, Visual Concepts instead secured the rights to over 240 retired football players to fill its rosters with.
    • Backbreaker, made by NaturalMotion as a Tech-Demo Game for their Euphoria physics engine, features a fictional "Backbreaker Football League".
    • The canceled Road to Sunday, made by Sony (who previously made the NFL GameDay series), would have featured a North American Football Association (NAFA) and, like Blitz: The League, a very M-rated storyline and gameplay mechanics.
  • Fallout:
  • Performance parts in Forza Motorsport 4 are a generic brand, unlike 3, where most of the ports were "made" by a certain manufacturer, such as K&N making air filters for certain car brands.
    • Generally justified, as 4 features a lot more niche and unique cars where no real company would design aftermarket parts for them. However, said niche cars often use engines or are actually built from other cars (for example, the Bertone Mantide is just a Corvette ZR 1 with a lighter, radically designed body), so the reason why aftermarket companies were removed besides advertising billboards remains unclear.
  • Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist has a quest involving a tube of "Preparation G." In addition, Freddy mentions to his "faithful Indian sidekick" that one of the perks of the position is all the "Rustler's Stove" chocolates he can eat.
  • In FreudBot the title character comments to Steve that its psychiatric services are paid for mostly by Steve's health insurance and partly by advertising. After that, whenever conversation gets a little awkward it suggests having a glass of "refreshing Gurgleurp lemonade."
  • The Grand Theft Auto series features a whole bunch of these across everything from cars to video game consoles to websites to restaurant chains, logically enough given that no company would dare clear their products to be featured in a game as notorious as the Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar Games often uses the opportunity to royally take the piss out of the real-life products by turning their fake ones into parodies thereof.
  • Heavy Rain features "Asthma" brand inhalers, among other things.
  • The opening Cut Scene of Jurassic Park: Trespasser shows John Hammond on the cover of a magazine named "Science America".
  • The painkillers in Max Payne are referenced by name in Max Payne 2: "Interfectum 600mg: a serious painkiller for serious pain".
    • Due to becoming The Alcoholic in Max Payne 3, Max can frequently be seen drinking bottles of "Kong" whiskey in cutscenes.
  • Monday Night Combat is positively saturated with advertisements and endorsements for its wide variety of fake combat related products and services:
    Mickey Cantor: Uncle Tully's Original Organ Highlighters! Just like what the doctors use...only for shooting.
  • A truly vast number of freeware games — especially Japanese games — open with ripoffs of old video game loading screens. For example, "Kobami" from La-Mulana.
  • In the Alesso Heist for PAYDAY 2, the concession sells such treats as Herp Derps, Crusts! (in a suspiciously Pringles-like can), and WTFs. A few heists include Pear Computers shops.
  • Thirsty for some Cielo Mist? Or perhaps a One-Up? Persona 3 has 'em for the low, low cost of 120 yen!
    • Persona 3 was filled with them, Every vending machine had some type of American drink just to show how well Atlus actually translates the games. Some of the most memorable ones were : (Dr. Salt: Salty soda. Popular, but an acquired taste.) (Mad Bull: The most caffeinated drink available.) (Starvicks: Famous coffee, mixed with cough syrup.) (Fountain Dew: A disturbingly yellow soft drink.)
  • In Ratchet: Deadlocked, one of the randomly generated bits of Witty Banter from announcers Dallas and Juanita explicitly mentions "Brand X Gelatin".
  • The various full-heal foodstuffs in Shin Megami Tensei IV are based on real-life Japanese food items, with the bartenders even calling them ersatzes. For example, the bartender in Ueno gives you an ersatz croquette based on the ones from the "Niku-no-something" grocery store.
  • Silent Hill has Vestal Gigastore, a riff on Virgin Megastore. And if you know what a Vestal Virgin is, and you've played to the end of the game, you know what a Does This Remind You of Anything? that is.
    • There are also McBurger and Queen Burger restaurants about town.
  • SimCity buildings fall under this. There's the Kong Tower, Quigley Insurance, Byall Means Travel Agency, Wright and Daughter, Dragon Dr., Justin Brown Plaza, Bob's Grease Pit, Curtin Fabrics, Pump & Scoot Gas and Wren Insurance building just to name a few.
  • The Sims, by proxy, is also full of this by way of the brand names of all buyable items. This actually gets averted down the line, thanks to a tie-in deal with IKEA. The Sims 3 would later get a stuff pack sponsored by Diesel.
    • As an added note, using the random Sim generater in The Sims 2 Debug mode will cough up Sims with ramdomly-generated names that include some Brand X last names, like Curtin, Byall, Wren etc.
  • Summertime Saga: A store in the mall is called Consum-R, there are websites like eGay and Sluttygram, Erik's favorite game is World of Orcettes, and Becca's favorite drink is GoldSchwagger.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner uses "world" products almost exclusively, with a few exceptions, like Mountain Dew (which invariably appears with the 1973 logo). Interestingly, most of the products, both names and the products themselves, sound sensible at first but on second reading turn out to be complete gibberish ("flavor taste-style chewing powder" ...?)
    • Notable Brand Xs include the Cold Ones series of beers; especially the Coldson Lite, who looks like a can of Coors Lite, yet whose name resembles Molson. Interestingly, Molson and Coors merged in 2005.
    • This is doubly subverted with the Tandy computers. Tandy was a real brand, once, but Strong Bad's "Tandy 400" computer resembles nothing ever produced by it. Furthermore, its logo is a multicolored star with a bite taken out of it. In case the parody wasn't obvious yet, this same logo is later seen on obvious Macintosh lookalikes.
    • But the exceptions can be pretty blatant. "Let's sing a song of Pennzoil!"
      • ...and sometimes it's part of the joke: In sbemail "caffeine", Strong Bad gets Strong Sad on a caffeine rush by "drop[ping] a couple of heaping spoonfuls of Sanka into [his] orange juice." Sanka is, of course, well-noted for being a decaffeinated coffee.
  • Little Prolie Beer in Lucky Day Forever

    Webcomics 
  • Autumn Bay features Stephen, Callie, and Adam chowing down on Spiffee Burger.
  • There are two "Cüke" machines in the background of this Bad Machinery strip.
  • In El Goonish Shive, the Wii and its balance board make appearances but never by name.
  • In Enemy Quest, a fast-food chain called "Tesla's" is mentioned. They carry an item called "Bugzapper burgers", but apparently only sell them on the anniversary of the day when the truce with the Visitors was signed.
  • Guilded Age:
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Molly the Peanut Butter Monster was born from a jar of Generico brand peanut butter. They have a factory near Generictown.
  • Metompsychosis Union: The bar carries Tres Serpientes rather than Dos Equis.
  • Misfile has beer bottles and cans labeled "BEER". The author has stated that he doesn't drink and didn't want to depict any particular brand.
  • Mountain Time has Beer brand beer, which can probably be purchased at an Oil Princess gas station franchise, which in turn might be owned by the Business Company.
  • In The Order of the Stick strips 6 and 31, the party sees Durkon as a pack of Band-Aids, and a mind flayer sees Elan as a can of Diet Coke. When these were redone in higher resolution for the book Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, Durkon became "Bandages" and Elan became "Diet Cola".
    • In strip 711, Haley buys from cosmetics company Aton (A parody of Avon).
  • The most popular and most heavily advertised beverage in Ozy and Millie is Kablammo Soda. Also seen on occasion are Frooty-Os.
  • Averted in Penny Arcade, where main characters Gabe and Tycho talk about the latest real-life video games constantly.
  • Sleepless Domain:
    • An interstitial features Melty Flame and Melty Frost starring in a commercial for appliances. The company they're advertising is called Junetag Appliances, and Frost carries a bag of frozen vegetables that appears to read "Generic Veg".
    • Chapter 12, Page 4 has Tessa grabbing a milk carton fittingly labeled with... "Milk".
  • xkcd presents its own stab at gaining a brand.

    Web Original 
  • In many of the illustrations on Wikihow, the brand names are usually "Wikihow".

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time makes use of the "Pear Computer" Brand name in episode: "Hitman".
  • In Archer Glengoolie Blue or Gengoolie Black scotch is featured in several episodes.
  • Beavis and Butt-Head worked at "Burger World," whose sign is obviously a McDonald's sign with the arches inverted.
  • Cartoon Network has its Whisbees.
  • The Critic has "Hair In A Can" and "Phlegm Fatale Cigarettes."
  • "Generic Cereal" made Dan's list of enemies in Dan Vs.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • It uses Soder as its brand of... well, soda. Most prevalent in Superman: The Animated Series.
    • Not to mention the Flash's "Lightspeed Energy Bars". You get a big boost of flavor in every bite!
    • Static Shock has the "Burger Fool" fast food chain, complete with a clown mascot.
  • Family Guy often depicts Chris and Meg eating "Generic Puffs", the decoration on the box being just the brand name on a white background. They also tend to bounce around between McBurgertown and McDonald's whenever they feel like it. Outright lampshaded in an episode where Quagmire bemoans the fact that they are on TV (thus unable to say the brand name) and complains that everybody already knows the products they're trying to censor.
  • The Flintstones were probably parodying the practice, in an episode where Fred and Barney enter a sponsored baking competition/commercial. When Fred and Barney's cake wins, they end up being disqualified when Barney inadvertently reveals they used brand X flour. As the emcee frantically explains afterwards, they can hardly declare the winner to have used one of the competing brands.
  • Futurama has Slurm soft drink, which is central to the episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory". Also, Lightspeed Briefs and Mom's Old-Fashioned Robot Oil. It also uses parody brands, such as Admiral Crunch and Archduke Chocula on "The Series Has Landed" and Sonya speakers on "Amazon Women in the Mood".
    • Burger Jerk, Fishy Joe's, or Chizzler. It's debatable, depending on what you hear, whether Molten Boron is a brand or a state. "No one does/nt/it like Molten Boron".
    • Another example is the product "Third and Third and Third" in the episode "I second that Emotion", a parody of "Half and Half."
    • Several shows are "sponsored" by made-up brands and products, including Arachno-Spores, Thompson's Teeth and Glagnar's Human Rinds.
    • Mombil.
    • And Fry's beer of choice, the aptly-named "LoBrau".
  • With Gravity Falls, we have Pitt Cola.
  • One episode of Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats featured a brand of cat food literally called "Brand X", which Heathcliff actually prefers.
  • Invader Zim has Poop brand cola, candy bars, etc.
  • The opening sequence to Jem features covers to three magazines called "Glitter", "Gloss", and "Trendy".
  • Kaeloo: The soda brand the characters drink is called "Slurp".
  • In Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, the fastest way to internet fame goes through Rank of Awesome rather than YouTube. Especially if you use cats.
  • Kim Possible has, in addition to its thinly veiled celebrity archetypes, a slew of in-world brands: Mexican fast-food establishment Bueno Nacho, big-box retailer Smarty-Mart, fashion boutique and clothing line Club Banana, and so forth.
  • "MegaLoMart", a parody of Walmart and to a lesser degree Sams and CostCo, from King of the Hill.
  • Just about everything in the 90s Australian cartoon Little Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers is 'Junk' brand, from cola and a clear Vegemite analogue, to the only television station shown. 'Junk Corporation' just happens to be owned by the Corrupt Corporate Executive villain, W.C. Moore.
  • In the world of Metalocalypse, almost every single store or service is named after a real world extreme metal band, if not after Dethklok itself. Thus, Finntroll Groceries, Dimmu Burger (a pun on Dimmu Borgir), a restaurant called "Burzum's", the Gorgoroth hardware store, etc. etc.
  • The Mighty B!'s Honeybees have unusual similarities to The Girl Scouts.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998) had, well, a number of different cereals combined into one brand: "Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets". The mascot for this brand seems to be a mash-up of Lucky the leprechaun, the Trix rabbit, Captain Crunch and King Vitaman.
    • Even the slogan is Brand X: "Ridiculous Lucky Captain Rabbit King! Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!"
    • Not to mention the chemical used in the opening sequence of the series is literally called Chemical X.note 
  • Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: In one episode, characters make things out of what they only refer to as "building blocks" but which are very, very blatantly LEGOs.
  • In Regular Show the characters frequently eat at Wing Kingdom (most likely a stand-in for Buffalo Wild Wings)
    • In Party Pete Mordecai and Rigby find an old case of "Radicola" in the attic.
    • In Fuzzy Dice Muscle Man suggests getting Pops a "Jeff Forgeman grill" for his birthday. In that same episode the park workers — sans Pops — also visit The Fun Fun Zone (an obvious parody of Chuck E. Cheese).
  • Played for Laughs with Grizzlebee's in Sealab 2021.
  • The Simpsons has Duff Beer and Krusty Burger, among others.
    • Both of which, interestingly, became real brands during the run of the movie (The Krusty Burgers were rebranded Burger Kings.)
    • They lampshaded this in a conversation between the cop, Lou, and Chief Wiggum which was also a parody of the "royale with cheese" scene in Pulp Fiction. Lou mentioned eating at a McDonald's in Shelbyville, but Wiggum had never heard of it, despite there being 2000 locations in the state.
    • Lampshaded again in a another episode where it turned out Krusty was paying the mob to keep other fast food chains out of Springfield.
    • There's also Laramie cigarettes. The brand did exist, but it's been discontinued since The '50s.
    • In the episode "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield", several TV brands are shown: Panaphonic (Panasonic), Magnetbox (Magnavox), and Sorny (Sony). It's implied they were knockoffs, however.
    • As well as Bart referring to a "flying novelty disc" instead of a Frisbee.
    • In a different episode, Lisa yearns for trendy electronic devices from electronics company Mapple, run by Steve Mobs. In the beginning of the episode, she gets a discarded myPod from Krusty.
    • "Buzz Cola" is their go-to cola brand though they have also mentioned Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper products. One episode even lampooned Crystal Pepsi in the early 90s but was portrayed as "Crystal Buzz Cola."
  • Spongebob Squarepants: Two Words — KRABBY PATTY
  • Teen Titans (2003), along with many other early 2000s cartoons, had the Gamestation console.
  • Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner: ACME Products.

    Other 
  • Pretty much the whole, if satiric, point of Wacky Packages bubblegum.
  • Morley brand cigarettes (frequently substituted for popular American brand Marlboro) have been used in both Film, Television, and a few Video Games. That Other Wiki has an article dedicated to it as well.
  • Similarly, Oceanic Airlines has been the most common choice of fictional airline since its first appearance in 1996. That Other Wiki article here.
  • Oaties cereal (a very obvious parody of Wheaties) is another example.
  • Fictitious counterparts of CNN appear under various approximate abbreviations (ZNN, CNC, NNN, etc) in countless TV series, films, and other formats. This has its own trope page, Alphabet News Network.
  • If a military peacekeeping force is needed it will often be the Allied Nations as a thinly disguised stand in for UN forces, down to using the same white vehicles with blue lettering and blue berets/helmets.

    Real Life 
  • A rare case of a real-life brand serving as this: for a long time, the automaker Ruf, which takes Porsche chassis and builds its own cars from them, served as a way for racing games featuring licensed cars to have Porsches without actually doing so, as until late 2016, Electronic Arts held the exclusive rights to use Porsche automobiles in video games. The Forza series (made by Microsoft) initially featured Porsches due to a licensing deal that Microsoft had with EA, but starting with Motorsport 4, EA demanded more money, leading to the Porsches being cut and only later reintroduced through DLC; the Forza series would follow the lead of other games in using Ruf cars until another DLC pack for Horizon 2, generally assumed to have come about through Microsoft paying out the nose to EA.
  • In The '80s, "Generic" products distinguished by plain white labels and simple black or dark blue lettering were commonly available for a brief time; and were popular due to their lower cost. Some of these were actual name-brand products sold under what the industry terms "white-label" packaging. (Example: generic "Beer", as seen in Repo Man, was typically Lucky Lager.) The minimalist look was replaced later in the decade by "store brand" product packaging.
    • Canadian grocery chain Loblaw's has a store brand known as "No Name" to this very day (which debuted in The '70s), whose products are typically contained in bright yellow packaging with plain black type.
    • Germany sells a lot of expensive-brand products as generic or no-name brands at discounters for lower price. Generally the packaging is simpler or the regular brand products are simply more expensive by some arbitrary measure. This is bound to happen when all foodstuff is ultimately owned by only 10 companies (books and magazines have it even worse, because there the ultimate owners are only 4).
  • Aldi stores are known for this.
  • For a short while, there was a pop group called Brand X.
  • In the Czech Republic, in reaction to just about any advertisement for washing powders comparing their product with a "common washing powder", one company actually started making a washing powder of that name.
    • Ditto for Russian washing powder with the same name, if it's not the same company.
  • There are some generic store-brand beers that just have "beer" on the label.
  • There is also a brand of wine called "Cheap Red Wine", although it is meant as a gag (despite being a completely accurate description of the product).
  • There is actually a drink called Brand X. At only 22% alcohol, it's a cheap knockoff of Brandy.
  • Many companies have made knockoff biscuits that look like Oreos. Julie's Biscuits actually labels these as Stereos.
    • The most famous Oreo "knock-off", Hydrox, actually came first.
    • Another notable Oreo knock-off is the Egyptian one made by that country's cookie giant BiscoMisr, whose "Borio" cookies even have Oreo-like packaging.
  • You can order "lager" at bars in and around Philadelphia, and the only clarification the bartender might ask is "bottle or draft". The brand you will get is Yuengling (not a bad deal, considering that Yuengling is a pretty good beer as American non-craft beers go).
  • Happens a lot in Iran, for multiple different reasons:
    • The people like things like Oreos, but the sanctions and the generally shitty state of the economy make imported goods much more expensive than they have any right to be. And things like that cannot be produced locally with the actual trademark, as the law forbids making that kind of deal with an American company. So naturally, local companies do their best to replicate the formula and come up with a Bland-Name Product style name to make it clear what they are ripping off. Lots of bakeries use Dorna "Oreno"s to decorate cakes.
  • Inverted with the Chandris Line and its spin-off, Celebrity Cruises, where the letter "X" refers to the Greek name of its founder, Anthony Chandris (Χανδρή).
  • Twitter / X is also an inversion: current owner Elon Musk is fond of the letter "X", which is reflected in the names of his ventures, such as X.com (the financial platform that later merged with Confinity to become PayPal), SpaceX and xAI.
  • There was a cable internet company in the US around the year 2000 literally called "Brand X." They challenged a Federal Communications Commission interpretation of federal law that was bad for its business, and now "the Brand X case" is a thing for administrative lawyers.


Alternative Title(s): The Leading Brand

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