Basic Trope: A character collects box tops from breakfast cereal until they have enough to mail in exchange for a prize.
- Straight: Bob saves up 50 box tops from boxes of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs in order to get the advertised prize of a new bicycle.
- Exaggerated: Bob saves 10,000 box tops so he can win a chance to win $1,000,000.
- Downplayed: Bob only needs two or three box tops to get the prize.
- Justified: Bob really wanted the prize and would do anything to get it, so of course he'd eat assloads of the cereal to get the number of required box tops.
- Inverted:
- Bob mails one of his possessions to the cereal company in exchange for a bunch of box tops.
- Bob mails coupons collected from stuff he's bought to win a box of cereal.
- Subverted: Bob considers collecting the box tops, but decides not to try.
- Double Subverted: Bob changes his mind when it occurs to him that there might be no other way to get the prize that's being advertised.
- Parodied:
- The cereal prize is a pair of underwear or some other item that not many people would be willing to eat a bunch of cereal just to save enough box tops for.
- The amount of money Bob spent on cereal to get enough box tops costs just as much or even more money than it would have cost him just to buy the item he wants from a store.
- Zig Zagged: Bob has second thoughts about collecting the box tops, but changes his mind. He doesn't get the prize because he failed to mail enough box tops in time. He considers trying again for the next prize, but the new prize is discontinued before he can mail the box tops on time.
- Averted: Cereals never do promotions where their consumers have to donate a specific number of box tops in exchange for a prize.
- Enforced: The creators decide to do an episode poking fun at consumers and corporate strategies by having the plot revolve around Bob trying to get enough box tops for a prize he wants.
- Lampshaded: "You're seriously devoted to getting that dumb bike the makers of the cereal promise if you give them enough box tops? Pray you don't die of diabetes before the bike shows up in the mail, Bob."
- Invoked: Bob is having trouble finding a bike in stores. After finding out about his favorite cereal's offer to give a free bicycle to whoever gives them enough box tops, he decides to start collecting the box tops to get his new bike.
- Exploited: The makers of the cereal pull this stunt to get more people to want to buy their cereal.
- Defied: Bob refuses to buy the cereal to collect box tops, no matter how badly he wants the bike.
- Discussed: "Another devious marketing strategy. You get people to buy more boxes of the cereal by promising them something they could just buy themselves in exchange for a specific number of box tops."
- Conversed: "Why doesn't Bob just buy himself a bike if he wants one so badly? In the long run, it'd be much less expensive than buying craploads of sugary cereal just to save the box tops."
- Implied: Bob is asked how he was able to afford his new bike and Bob answers that all it cost him was having the same thing for breakfast every morning.
Back to Competition Coupon Madness so we can collect enough box tops for a new scooter.
