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A fictional brand is a non-existing brand used in artistic or
entertainment productions — paintings, books, comics, movies, TV serials, etc..
The fictional brand may be designed to imitate a real corporate brand, satirize a real corporate brand, or differentiate itself
from real corporate brands.
Why create fictional brands
Works of fiction often mention or show specific brands to give more realism to the
plot or scenery. Specific brands provide descriptive details that the author can use to craft a plot: a character may own a
factory that manufactures a popular product, or may make a scene by demanding a particular brand; a detective may get clues from the brand of cigarettes smoked
by a suspect; a film may include a commercial poster on the background, or show a
package of cereal in close-up.
However, unauthorized use of real trademarks for such purposes could trigger
legal action by their owners — especially if the brands are referenced in a way that could be seen to have negative
marketing impact. In general, the use of a real brand requires prior written consent by the brand's owner, who will typically
demand some control on the brand's use. These hassles are probably the main reason for the use of fictitious brands.
Real brands are often used, of course. Sometimes a specific brand is needed because of its prior associations; e.g.
the Coca-Cola machine scene in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove would not work with any other real or fictitious brand
(except possibly Pepsi). Sometimes the author will use a common brand only to make the
scene more natural or create a specific ambience. More commonly, such uses are instances of product placement — the insertion of "casual" (but actually paid and intentional) positive
references to brands in movies, television programming, games, and books. However, this practice is so widespread in the entertainment industry that it gives authors another reason to
avoid the use of real brands: any such reference would be suspected by the public of being paid advertising, and could diminish
the artistic or intellectual merit of the work.
Another advantage to a fictional brand is that all its specifications can be invented. In this sense, an author can invent a
model or brand of car, for which he can make up details. That way, he doesn't have to go look up specifications on a car, which
would take time and effort- he could just make them up.
Yet another reason to use a fictional brand is that sometimes a product is itself a major "character" in the plot, and using a
real brand would limit creativity as the author would be constrained by the actual attributes of that brand. A subset of this is
comedic brands, the most famous being "Acme" for the maker of complicated gadgets that never quite work.
Finally, the use of a real brand may be excluded also when the plot is meant to develop in a time or place (e.g. in a distant
future, or in a fictional universe) where the real brand would
not have existed anyway.
Fictional brands
The following is a list of fictional brands, organized by product category.
Alcoholic beverages
Breakfast Cereals
Carbonated Beverages
- Buzz Cola - The Simpsons
- Carbie Cola (The most carbonated soda ever) - Fillmore
- C.M.O.T. Dibbler's Genuine Authentic Soggy Mountain Dew -
Discworld, the bottle says 'one hundred and fifty percent proof'! This is almost
certantly a lie.
- Cowboy Cola - Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles (Mirage
Studios comics)
- Ebola Cola ("The hemorrhage that refreshes") - Transmetropolitan comics
- Jooky - 7-Up commercial
- Nozz-a-La - Dark Tower, an alternate version
of Coka Cola.
- sHades ("sHades - The soda from Hell") - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- Slurm - Futurama
- Soder Cola - DC Comics, esp. Superman titles
- Zesti Cola - DC Comics, esp. Batman titles; Soder's great rival.
Cigarettes
Cigars and other Tobacco products
Food and grocery products
Confections and candy products
Nutritional supplements
Medicine and drugs
Household products
- Binford Tools - Home Improvement, Toy Story
- Carl Farbman furniture - Seinfeld
- Galaxy Glue - The Incredible Shrinking Woman
- Keflon cookware - Seinfeld
Hair, hygiene, and beauty products
- Dapper Dan Pomade - O Brother, Where
Art Thou?
- Fop Pomade - O Brother, Where Art
Thou?
- Lover Soap - Stranger in a Strange
Land
- Ocean Breeze Soap (
For people who don't want to stink It will make you clean") - The Muppets Take
Manhattan
- Ori-dent electric toothbrushes - Seinfeld
- Soul Glow - Coming to America
- Toothpaste - The Toothpaste Millionaire
Stores, retailers, and fast-food outlets
Vehicles
Other products
See also
External links
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