"Incidentally, this record is available in the foyer. Some of us have got to live as well, you know."
— Mr. Cheeky, during the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", Monty Python's Life of Brian
When a show breaks the fourth wall and implores the audience to please go out and buy The Merch, because the show's creators would really like to get some income from it.
Usually associated with parodies of Merchandise-Driven shows. Compare Enforced Plug and Please Subscribe to Our Channel.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The English dub for the last episode of Moon Phase ends with Haiji using these very words.
Comic Books
- The Sonic the Hedgehog Promo Comic tells the reader to go buy the game it's based on to find out how it ends.
- Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: Lampshaded in "The Problem With Cats" where Wondy asks if Cheetah doesn't want the whole novelty set when Cheetah demands the Lasso of Truth before telling her and the reader that it comes with the lasso and a model invisible plane.
Comic Strips
- Bloom County introduced Bill the Cat with strips plugging Bill-themed products, in a not-too-subtle Take That! against the Garfield merchandising empire, the joke being that "cats are cute" (allegedly) but Bill really isn't.
Coupon: YES! I want to join the "Bill the Cat Buyers Club!" I promise to buy only "Bill the Cat" junk for the rest of my life. If I don't, my dog will be stolen and fed to giant pygmies.
Fan Works
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Movie superimposes the caption "BUY YU-GI-OH CARDS TODAY" over the climactic duel.
Films — Live-Action
- Parodied to hell and back in Spaceballs. Yoghurt has an entire scene dedicated to showing of merchandise, and claims the sequel will be "Spaceballs II: The Search for More Money". A subversion, since George Lucas allowed them to parody Star Wars only if they didn't make any merchandise.
- Galaxy Quest plays this in-universe when the commentator at the movie convention in the closing scene reminds the audience to buy a Galaxy Quest shirt on their way out.
Literature
- Dave Barry Talks Back does this in a deliberately irrelevant afterword intended for people who decide to buy books based on skimming their final pages. In this afterword, two characters who have nothing to do with the rest of the book (which is a compilation of humor columns) advertise it as a "steamy, action-packed novel." They talk about the book's retail price being a bargain even without the advice on how to make money fast and lose weight effortlessly.
"Buy this book now!" they chorused. "Mrs. L. Puttee of Big Stoat, Ark., bought this book, and the next day she won four billion dollars in the lottery! Myron Fennel of Syracuse, N.Y., failed to buy this book, and the next day his head was sliced off by a helicopter rotor and landed on the roof of a Holiday Inn four miles distant!"
Your eyes are getting heavy. You are getting sleepy, very, very sleepy. You are walking up to the bookstore clerk. You are taking out your wallet. We take all major credit cards. Thank you.
Live-Action TV
- The transitional cityscape shots on MTV's reality and scripted series often include a backing track by a notable or up-and-coming band or artist. During these scenes, information is displayed on the screen which lists the artists, song name and try to direct the viewer to the MTV site (though very few actually do this and just play it on YouTube, Spotify or iTunes).
- Smallville also featured a bevy of Warner Bros. artists during its run on the The WB network. After each episode, they'd name the song and artists featured in that show, and point you to where you could buy their album.
- Kaamelott: In-Universe. Father Blaise is conducting tours of Kaamelott, including the throne room and Arthur's tomb (Arthur is understandably somewhat miffed), ending with "We would like to remind you that model Excaliburs are on sale at the end of the tour".
Magazines
- In the MAD parody of Pokémon: The Series, the Theme Tune Rap admits to being a "gratuitous plug" which somehow gets past FCC regulations:
Bulbasaur, Magmar, Jigglypuff!
Bellsprout, Squirtle, Wigglytuff!
Raticate, Omanyte, Rapidash,
And other dumb names to suck your cash!
Give us pesos, schillings, yen, rupees,
There is no bottom to our sleaze!
Money orders, check, or credit card,
We're pushing this crap and we're pushing it hard!
Professional Wrestling
- Sure, there is already a Merchandise-Driven nature to pro wrestling, but the New World Order took TV spots hocking their t-shirts to absurd, self-parodic, even deconstructive levels, mostly by Kevin Nash squawking in an overly shrill voice, "Buy the shirt!"
- The WWE is taking this to parody to levels of deconstruction now with the WWE Network, which they constantly advertise as being only $9.99note
- Between matches, Ring of Honor often has clips of wrestlers updating fans about their latest products. And ACH seemingly
couldn't wait even that long.
Radio
- For some time The Brewing Network's Justin was pretty much supported by merchandise sales and donations from listeners (with a lot of on air gratitude), with some sponsors making up the gap. There are more sponsors now, but he insists that donations and merchandise sales still help not only keep the show on the air but keep him in food.
Theatre
- In the revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, the lyrics of the Dance Sensation spoof "The Gazooka" took care to mention that its sheet music was "thirty cents a copy — one you ought to buy!" The revue's finale, "Dancing To The Score," shamelessly plugged several earlier numbers because "it helps the sales at ev'ry music store."
Video Games
- Mortal Kombat II parodies this in the friendship move done by the male ninja characters, where they flat out tell the player to buy a doll of him.
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner: Parodied by the Cheat Commandos, whose theme song ends with the tagline "Buy all our playsets and toys!"
Web Video
- Some Hypocritical Humour for Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw:
"Fans are clingy, complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill, tremulous voices, the happier you will be for it. Incidentally, why not buy a Zero Punctuation T-shirt?"
- Doctor Steel's Nightmare Fuel homage to the Home Shopping Network in The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1. (Dr. Steel is a toymaker, so what do you expect?) Also sung about in his song, Back and Forth: "You can think for yourselves / Or you can buy all my toys...consume and gobble it up..."
- Joueur du Grenier: A Running Gag on merch-based series that started with the Beyblade special is an annoying jingle repeatedly singing "Just buy! Our crap!", combined with screen messages like "YOU NEED THIS" and "IF YOU CAN'T BUY IT KILL YOURSELF".
- Secret Life SMP: Invoked. Joel's assigned task on Day 1 is to plug the Life SMP merch four times in the session, at the worst timing possible. He usually chooses to interpret this as advertising while fighting mobs.
Western Animation
- South Park:
- In the episode "Towelie", they break to a fake commercial selling a Towelie towel. Incidentally, you can really buy one (not exactly the same, as it doesn't have a speech chip).
- In "Free Hat", there's a a fake advertisement for a George Lucas Altered Version of the show's very first episode, complete with the aliens and spaceship being replaced with CGI versions, and characters and creatures from Star Wars inexplicably roaming around.
Announcer: Get this special enhanced version quick, because another enhanced version will likely be coming out for 2003! - In the episode "Towelie", they break to a fake commercial selling a Towelie towel. Incidentally, you can really buy one
- Freakazoid! had an episode that was essentially a commercial for a toy of his car, the Freakmobile. It even comes with its own chubby sidekick figure. They tell the viewer to run right out and get one NOW. At the end the narrator reads off a disclaimer telling the viewer not to go anywhere as (sadly) the toys don't really exist and it's all a jokenote .
- Parodied in Johnny Bravo: At the end of an episode of the Show Within a Show Clam League 9000 (which looks like a bizarre mixture of Pokémon: The Series and Dragon Ball Z), the protagonist literally shouts at the viewer "And you can too if you go to the store and BUY OUR TOYS! BUY OUR TOYS! BUY OUR TOYS!"
- Daria never had an explicit advertisement for music, but a lot of the background music was from artists MTV was trying to push at the time. It became a problem when releasing the show for DVD because they had to replace all of the music with generic background tracks, least they get into a nightmare of licensing fees.
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