History Main / TheMoralSubstitute

* Plus One were created as the [=CCM=] industry's answer to boy bands like the Music/BackstreetBoys and Music/{{NSYNC}}. However, MisaimedMarketing led to them recording a song for the ''[[Anime/Pokemon2000 Pokémon: The Movie 2000]]'' soundtrack, appearing on secular TV shows such as ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'', and getting Radio/RadioDisney airplay (with "Last Flight Out" showing up on ''Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 4'').

* ''Literature/TheMartian'' received this treatment from its own author Creator/AndyWeir, who [[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/business/andy-weirs-best-seller-the-martian-gets-a-classroom-friendly-makeover.html wrote a "Classroom Edition"]] after he was approached by science teachers who wondered why he had to use [[ClusterFBomb so many cuss words]] in a book that was otherwise perfect for getting kids excited about space.

* Ride/{{Disneyland}} started out as one. Creator/WaltDisney wanted a clean, inviting place that he could take his daughters to that was completely unlike the [[CrappyCarnival dirty, sleazy amusement parks and carnivals]] of the 1950s. His approach was so successful that it [[GenreTurningPoint became the standard in the industry]]; out of necessity, the other parks either had to improve their standards to entice new customers or risk going out of business.

** ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_and_Dara_dolls Dara and Sara]]'', the officially-sanctioned Iranian ''Barbie'' doll substitute.

** ''[[http://www.islamfortoday.com/iran02.htm Dara and Sara]]'', the officially-sanctioned Iranian ''Barbie'' doll substitute.

** Several alternatives to Barbie try to promote "a more healthy and realistic" body image; the most common complaint these brands have are her body proportions, which don't match with human ones due to the slim waist and large chest. Dolls of this type go back almost as long as Barbie has and include the 1970s [[https://www.modbarbies.com/mod-barbies-blog/1974-dusty-and-skye-dolls-by-kenner Dusty doll]] and the 1990s [[https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/doll-happy-to-be-me/9gGYEptsYW3MHw Happy To Be Me]] doll; at least one variant also has molded nipples (supposedly so young girls didn't think that the fact that their breasts weren't featureless lumps meant there was something wrong with them). The most recent example of an attempt to make a "realistic" fashion doll was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammily the Lammily doll]] in 2014, meant to be proportioned on the average figure of 19-year-old American women. (A curious optional extra includes [[https://lammily.com/product/lammily-marks/ a set of stick-on body marks]] -- yes, your doll can actually get zits and scratches if you so wish!) The reason the dolls never make near the impact as Barbie or truly last long enough to dethrone the brands is that most of the appeal of Barbie dolls aren't their body shapes but their variety in clothing and design, while most of the "realistic" dolls only have their realism to market themselves. Generally they fade out after children realize they can't buy Barbie's [[UnlimitedWardrobe many glamourous clothes]] for these dolls since they don't fit.

* [[https://treechangedolls.tumblr.com/ Tree Change Dolls]] take secondhand Toys/{{Bratz}} (as well as other used dolls) and remove the extreme eye size and makeup and redress them in generally casual clothing to make a more "natural, relatable" style of appearance. While it's just one artist who does this on her own, a lot of parents and adults claim the "make-unders" on these styles of doll are an improvment that make the dolls much less "sexualized."

* [[https://treechangedolls.tumblr.com/ Tree Change Dolls]] take used Toys/{{Bratz}} and remove the extreme eye size and makeup and redress them in generally casual clothng to make a more "natural, relatable" style of appearance. While it's just one artist who does this on her own, a lot of parents and adults claim the "make-unders" on these styles of doll are an improvment that make the dolls much less "sexualized."

* [[https://treechangedolls.tumblr.com/ Tree Change Dolls]] take Toys/{{Bratz}} and remove the extreme eye size and makeup and redress them in generally casual clothng to make a more "natural, relatable" style of appearance. While it's just one artist who does this on her own, a lot of parents and adults claim these "make-unders" are an improvment that make the dolls much less "sexualized."

* [[https://treechangedolls.tumblr.com/ Tree Change Dolls]] take Toys/{{Bratz}} and removed the extreme eye size and makeup and are dressed in generally casual clothng to make a more "natural, relatable" style of appearance. While it's just one artist who does this on her own, a lot of parents and adults claim these "makeunders" make the dolls much less "sexualized."

** Several alternatives promote "a more healthy and realistic" body image than ''Barbie''; the most common complaint is her body proportions, which just don't match with human ones. At least one version also has molded nipples, supposedly so young girls didn't think that the fact that their breasts weren't featureless lumps meant there was something wrong with them. The most notable example of this sort of thing was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammily the Lammily doll]], meant to be proportioned on the average figure of 19-year-old American women. A curious optional extra includes [[https://lammily.com/product/lammily-marks/ a set of stick-on body marks]] -- yes, your doll can actually get zits and scratches if you so wish!

** Kaiheila for Platform/{{Discord}}

** Baidu for Google

** Bilibili, Youku Tudou and IQIYI for Platform/YouTube and Twitch
** Sina Weibo for Facebook and Twitter

** Kaiheila for Discord

Distributism never took off on the level that socialism did, as its tight wedding to Catholicism limited its appeal to non-Catholics in its original form. Being a Catholic movement also meant that some of its most prominent proponents, in spite of their somewhat-leftist economic views, were quite socially conservative and hostile to socialism and communism, which led them to instead align themselves with and support fascist movements such as Mussolini's and Naziism, even to the point of sharing in their antisemetic beliefs. Naturally, this caused their popularity to plummet in Allied countries once UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started. \\\

Distributism never took off on the level that socialism did, as its tight wedding to Catholicism limited its appeal to non-Catholics in its original form. Being a Catholic movement also meant that some of its most prominent proponents, in spite of their somewhat-leftist economic views, were quite socially conservative and hostile to socialism and communism, which led them to instead align themselves with and support fascist movements such as Mussolini's and Naziism, even to the point of sharing in their antisemetic beliefs. Naturally, this caused their popularity to plummet in Allied countries once UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started. However, ideas from distributism did influence anti-trust legislation in the US and the Christian democracy movement in Europe and Latin America, and later entered the secular co-op, credit union, and social credit movements. It would also be rediscovered in TheSeventies by two radically different groups of activists: the nascent environmental and back-to-the-land movements on one hand, who saw it as a 'green' alternative to contemporary capitalism and socialism (influenced by E. F. Schumacher, author of ''Small is Beautiful''), and neo-fascists on the other, who saw it as a model for building a 'racially pure' nation (influenced by A. K. Chesterton, second cousin of G. K. and a co-founder of the National Front in Britain).

Distributism never took off on the level that socialism did, as its tight wedding to Catholicism limited its appeal to non-Catholics in its original form. Being a Catholic movement also meant that some of its most prominent proponents, in spite of their left-aligned economic views, were quite socially conservative and hostile to socialism and communism, which led them to instead align themselves with and support fascist movements such as Mussolini's and Naziism, even to the point of sharing in their antisemetic beliefs. Naturally, this caused their popularity to plummet in Allied countries once UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started. However, ideas from distributism did influence anti-trust legislation in the US and the Christian democracy movement in Europe and Latin America, and later entered the secular co-op, credit union, and social credit movements. It would also be rediscovered in TheSeventies by two radically different groups of activists: the nascent environmental and back-to-the-land movements on one hand, who saw it as a 'green' alternative to contemporary capitalism and socialism (influenced by E. F. Schumacher, author of ''Small is Beautiful''), and neo-fascists on the other, who saw it as a model for building a 'racially pure' nation (influenced by A. K. Chesterton, second cousin of G. K. and a co-founder of the National Front in Britain).

If everything works out, sure. However, almost by definition, creating the Moral Substitute means directly competing with what [[FollowTheLeader it is the substitute of]], while explicitly targeting a more specific demographic. Imagine creating a competitor to Coke and Pepsi but targeting only middle-aged mothers at the expense of appeal to the general population. If that sounds like a troubling investment to you, then you see why production values tend to be lower with many of them having NoBudget. Adding to the complications of course is the need to produce ''absolutely nothing'' even ''mildly'' offensive to the specific demographic you are targeting. Put it all together and the Moral Substitute suffers from a reputation of at best being an [[SoOkayItsAverage overly bland]] case of FollowTheLeader with very obvious BlackAndWhiteMorality, as moral substitutes don't allow room for any moral ambiguity. And those that weren't offended by the original are very unlikely to embrace this product (even if they are technically part of the target demographic). At worst, many of these Moral Substitutes enter the DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible territory.

* A whole industry of vegetarian products exists to provide replacements for burgers, bacon, and other meat products. Tofu is the best-known meat substitute in the West. There is also turkey bacon and ham for people who ''do'' eat meat but don't eat pork (those who keep kosher or halal dietary laws, for example).

If everything works out, sure. However, almost by definition, creating the Moral Substitute means directly competing with what [[FollowTheLeader it is the substitute of]], while explicitly targeting a more specific demographic. Imagine creating a competitor to Coke and Pepsi but targeting only middle-aged mothers at the expense of appeal to the general population. If that sounds like a troubling investment to you, then you see why production values tend to be lower with many of them having NoBudget. Adding to the complications of course is the need to produce ''absolutely nothing'' even ''mildly'' offensive to the specific demographic you are targeting. Put it all together and the Moral Substitute suffers from a reputation of at best being an [[SoOkayItsAverage overly bland]] case of FollowTheLeader with very obvious BlackAndWhiteMorality, as moral substitutes don't allow room for any moral ambiguity. And those that weren't offended by the original are very unlikely to embrace this product (even if they are technically part of the target demographic). At worst, many of these Moral Substitutes enter the SoBadItsHorrible territory.

If everything works out, sure. However, almost by definition, creating the Moral Substitute means directly competing with what [[FollowTheLeader it is the substitute of]], while explicitly targeting a more specific demographic. Imagine creating a competitor to Coke and Pepsi but targeting only middle-aged mothers at the expense of appeal to the general population. If that sounds like a troubling investment to you, then you see why production values tend to be lower with many of them having NoBudget. Adding to the complications of course is the need to produce ''absolutely nothing'' even ''mildly'' offensive to the specific demographic you are targeting. Put it all together and the Moral Substitute suffers from a reputation of being an [[SoOkayItsAverage overly bland]] case of FollowTheLeader with very obvious BlackAndWhiteMorality, as moral substitutes don't allow room for any moral ambiguity. And those that weren't offended by the original are very unlikely to embrace this product (even if they are technically part of the target demographic).

** The first HalloweenEpisode, "Hilloween", has a MoralGuardian do her best to ban Halloween in Arlen out of her belief that it's Satanic. As an alternative celebration for the local kids, she sets up a "Hallelujah House", which served mainly to [[{{Anvilicious}} beat them over the head]] with such Christian Aesops as "Premarital sex kills instantly". As conservative as Hank is, he finds the holiday perfectly enjoyable as is and objects to her efforts.
** In one episode, Bobby gets interested in Christianity due to a group of devout skateboarders. Hank spends most of the episode looking kind of bad (since he started off wanting Bobby to care more about their faith, but hates the direction he's taking), but in the end he explains that he just doesn't want Bobby to treat something that important as a mere fad, like his long-forgotten Troll Dolls and Tamagochi.

** The American Girl dolls ''themselves'' were conceived as a moral substitute to Barbie, whom series creator Pleasant Rowland [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/evolution-american-girl-dolls-180977822/ expressed disdain]] for being too sexualised for young girls, and Cabbage Patch Kids; she lamented that she couldn't find a companion-style doll for her nieces and the majority of dolls available were either adult aspirations or baby dolls to be cared for.

** ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'', which was also produced by the company behind ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'', is a Christian Moral Substitute to ScienceFiction cartoons, and has even less focus on Christianity and none after the first six episodes.

* The requirements various countries have of a mandated amount of locally produced TV and film. This was famously lampooned by the Canadian SketchComedy show ''Series/{{SCTV}}'', which had to fill Canadian TV's extra two minutes per half-hour with "Required Canadian Content". Miffed at the fact that a Canadian production, with all-Canadian writers, actors, and producers, was not enough in and of itself to meet requirements, they decided to fill those two minutes with all of the most over-the-top [[CanadaEh Canadian stereotypes]] they could possibly cram into two minutes. The result was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_%26_Doug_McKenzie Bob & Doug McKenzie]], who became [[BreakoutCharacter so popular]] that they not only eventually made it into the American feed of the show, but they were the only characters on the series to have their own ''[[TheMovie feature film]]'', in the form of ''Film/StrangeBrew''.

** [[http://www.bitchute.com BitChute]], [[http://rumble.com/ Rumble]], and [[http://lbry.tv LBRY]] are Website/{{YouTube}} clones also going this way, mainly due to Website/{{YouTube}}'s policies against videos that are not considered "advertiser-friendly".

* There have been a number of attempts at "patriotic" (read: right-wing/conservative/Tea Party American) alternatives to Website/{{Facebook}} out of a perception that the site's owners hold a left-wing bias and are censoring conservatives[[note]]In real life, Mark Zuckerberg has been identified as [[http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-fwd-us-conservative/ a conservative]] and as [[http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/liberal-billionaires-fundraising-2013-elections-tom-steyer-mark-zuckerberg-michael-bloomberg-99207.html a liberal]] in roughly equal measure, and he gives profusely to both Republican and Democratic candidates.[[/note]], recent examples including [[https://www.teapartycommunity.com/ Tea Party Community]], [[http://www.freedomtorch.com/ FreedomTorch]], and [[http://www.reaganbook.com ReaganBook]] (now re-branded as [=FreedomBook=]). Typically, however, these sites wind up either failing to resonate beyond their niche audience, or crawling with {{troll}}s after a few months before being shut down.

* [=GodTube=], the Christian alternative to Website/{{YouTube}}.

* Spoofed in a Website/YouTube video starring a troupe of rapping kids promoting the "Christian Side Hug," which avoids the "sinful" crotch contact of the traditional hug. No, as much as [[PoesLaw it might seem to be par for the course]], and as much as you might want it to be, it's not even the tiniest bit real.

* In the late 2010s, Apple also started doing this, promoting their hardware and software as a more privacy-focused alternative to similar offerings from Website/{{Facebook}} and Website/{{Google}}. In particular, they emphasize the fact that they do not sell user data to corporations and advertisers, which is a key component of the business models of many other tech companies (Facebook and Google included), leading to [[BigBrotherIsWatching scandals over the misuse and leak of data]]. They also promote their Platform/AppleArcade subscription service as a more ethical, consumer-friendly take on [[MobilePhoneGame mobile gaming]], a field otherwise notorious for its reliance on {{microtransactions}} and advertisements. In 2021, Apple even got into [[https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-vs-apple-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-privacy-feud/ a fight with Facebook]] over an update for [=iOS=] 14 adding a new feature that would let users require explicit permission from apps to track them across other apps -- a feature that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw as directly targeting his company's advertiser-driven business model.

* Website/GOGDotCom is a moral substitute to Platform/{{Steam}} and anything else with UsefulNotes/DigitalRightsManagement included, because it wants users to own the stuff they bought without losing access to the stuff they bought, as they stated in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20201225003258/https://fckdrm.com/ their FCK DRM initiative]] as to why DRM is a terrible idea.

* In the mid-late 2000s, Website/YouTube made WebVideo/TheIrateGamer into an early member of its "partner" program and pushed his videos to the front page. Internally, this happened in large part because he was seen as an advertiser-friendly alternative to WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, who was at the height of his popularity at the time and whose humor (i.e. opening every video with a theme song about eating a dead skunk's asshole) was anything but advertiser-friendly. The Irate Gamer used a largely identical format, but featured significantly less in the way of swearing and shocking imagery, making him seemingly a perfect substitute.

** Bilibili, Youku Tudou and IQIYI for Website/YouTube and Twitch

* The teaching of "Holy Ghost intoxication", or being [[http://www.apologeticsindex.org/d43.html "drunk in the Spirit"]], a spurious claim that comes from misinterpretation of Scriptures (mostly Acts chapter 2 and Ephesians 5:18) that is preached by the likes of Creator/BennyHinn, Rodney Howard Browne, and Kenneth E. Hagin, is often preached in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches as [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin an alternative to getting high from real drugs]]. John Crowder even goes so far as to call it "tokin' the Ghost". VICE has a Website/YouTube video on the subject that can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_Zj7OJjMcnM here]].

* [[OverlyLongName Conservative Dad's Ultra Right 100% Woke Free Beer]] is a conservative substitute for Bud Light, after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Bud_Light_boycott April 2023 Bud Light Boycott by conservatives]]. This was after Bud Light began a sponsorship campaign the company conducted with actress and TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman.

** One Wisdom Tree game, ''VideoGame/Super3DNoahsArk'' for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES]], is particularly famous among hardcore gamers for being the only unlicensed SNES cartridge released in the US. The game was essentially ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' [[SerialNumbersFiledOff with the guns replaced with food and the Nazis replaced with goats, sheep, llamas or other animals]]. An urban legend claims that id Software actually gave Wisdom Tree the ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' code and SNES lockout codes just to spite Creator/{{Nintendo}} after the SNES port of ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' was {{Bowdlerise}}d. id Software [[{{Jossed}} denies this]], claiming that Wisdom Tree was just another Id Tech 0 engine licensee.

* There was a PC game spawned by the ''Series/{{Bibleman}}'' video series by a company called Covenant Studios. It played sort of like ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' with jerky controls, sprites that moved at a snail's pace and weapons of a purely defensive nature -- even the character who had a laser gun at the time. Instead, there's a clunky system to destroy enemies with random Bible passages. To top it all off, Bibleman, the character the series is named after, has to be unlocked before players can take control of him. Oddly, despite this winning combination, the purported UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 and UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance versions never materialized. At last check, the developers' site had disappeared off the face of the internet.

* Parodied in a viral campaign for ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'', which offered a game at the complete opposite end called ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRMiRFJzIKA Mass: We Pray]]''. And naturally, [[TakeThat it was presented as]] a game using UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}-like technology. The punchline was that, whenever you clicked any link on the fake website for the game (which is now dead), you got a message more in the style of the ''real'' game informing you that performing mass without a real Catholic priest [[YouBastard falls under the sin of Heresy]].

* Some computer science researchers have proposed using male model Fabio Lanzoni [[note]]Yes, the guy who appeared in the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" commercials in the '90s.[[/note]] to test image processing algorithms as an alternative to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna "Lenna"]], a picture taken from an early '70s ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' issue (though cropped to remove the nudity), seeing the use of a female pin-up as a sexist relic of the days when programming was a "boys' club" that sends a poor image to women getting involved in the industry.

** ''Toys/MapleleaGirls'' isn't concerned with religion one way or the other; it's concerned with Americanism. The brand is Canadian, and encourages Canadian children to get over their CulturalCringe and leave a brand that wears its Americanness on its sleeves for one that embraces Canadian national identity. This has been moderately successful, but since american Girls started selling in Canada, most people there blend the lines. This is also true with Australian Girl, but in Australia.