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Merge or Repair? Fictional Counterpart vs. Bland Name Product

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Deadlock Clock: Jan 15th 2011 at 11:59:00 PM
rjung He's just some guy, you know? from Fifth and Main (Five Year Plan) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
He's just some guy, you know?
#1: Oct 29th 2010 at 11:23:03 AM

Courtesy links: Fictional Counterpart vs. Bland-Name Product

Maybe it's my head trauma acting up again, but I can't find a hair's width of difference between these two tropes. The descriptions don't make an effort to distinguish each other, (making attempts to contrast them fruitless), and many of the same examples are listed on both pages.

I don't see much for repairing here; might as well merge the two. Thoughts?

—R.J.

StarryEyed Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
#2: Oct 29th 2010 at 12:37:27 PM

As far as I understand it, Fictional Counterpart is sort of the companies/brand names version of No Celebrities Were Harmed. You want to use the company, but you don't want to get into legal trouble, so you make it a fictional counterpart instead. Bland-Name Product is more like Writing Around Trademarks, it's in the background and not important in any way to the story.

Admittedly, Trope Decay could blur the two, but I think there is a distinction.

suedenim Teutonic Tomboy T-Girl from Jet Dream HQ Since: Oct, 2009
Teutonic Tomboy T-Girl
#3: Oct 29th 2010 at 12:58:23 PM

I gotta say, I'm having trouble seeing meaningful distinctions here. Throw Brand X into the mix as well.

The problem might be one I've run into several times. Even when there is a legitimate, but Subtle, Trope Distinction between two or more tropes, a lot of people won't get the distinction, and the bad examples start piling up so fast that the subtle distinction is all but lost.

One example I've run into myself (though I think I've mostly cleaned the tropes up now) is Gender Bender vs. Easy Sex Change vs. Transsexual vs. Gender Flip.

Each has a distinct definition, but left unmonitored, every damn one of them will wind up with a Ranma One Half example, whether it fits or not.

edited 29th Oct '10 12:59:10 PM by suedenim

Jet-a-Reeno!
Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
rjung He's just some guy, you know? from Fifth and Main (Five Year Plan) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
He's just some guy, you know?
#5: Oct 29th 2010 at 5:47:27 PM

But that's not what the Bland-Name Product description says, nor do most of the examples on that page work like that.

I think the original intent was to use Fictional Counterpart for places, and Bland-Name Product for things, but Trope Decay has caused both of them to blur into pretty much the same idea.

—R.J.

edited 29th Oct '10 5:50:02 PM by rjung

StarryEyed Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it
#6: Oct 29th 2010 at 8:34:54 PM

I see the difference as:

Joan organizes her fellow coworkers into a strike against the oppressive conditions at WcDonald'sFictional Counterpart

In a stray moment during her hectic Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World schedule, Joan grabs a Big Smack at WcDonald's—Bland Name Product

edited 29th Oct '10 8:35:09 PM by StarryEyed

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#7: Oct 30th 2010 at 4:21:42 PM

So one's a store the other's a product? I can live with that.

Fight smart, not fair.
Twilightdusk Since: Jan, 2001
#8: Oct 30th 2010 at 5:10:07 PM

I don't really think there's enough to differentiate them, even if we try to repair them for the now, it seems inevitable that the lines we draw will get blurred again.

Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#9: Oct 30th 2010 at 6:16:33 PM

There should be a supertrope. I think it's Writing Around A Trademark. One is just a setting, the other is an item. If anything needs modification, I'd say it's Fictional Counterpart since it doesn't give enough clues about it's identity.

Fight smart, not fair.
GMon (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#11: Oct 30th 2010 at 6:26:19 PM

That's the one. They should already be subtropes.

Fight smart, not fair.
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