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A fictional brand is a non-existing
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
used in artistic or entertainment productions, such as paintings, books,
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
, movies, TV serials, and music. The fictional brand may be designed to imitate, satirize or differentiate itself from a real corporate brand.
[Robin Andersen, Jonathan Gray, ''Battleground: The Media'' (2008), p. 386.] Such a device may be required where real corporations are unwilling to license their brand names for use in the fictional work, particularly where the work holds the product in a negative light.
More recently, fictional brands have been used for commercial purposes through the process of
reverse product placement. Consumer attachment to those brands in the fictional world may be leveraged through “defictionalisation” or “productisation” in the real world. It has been suggested that the fictional brands represent brand potential rather than brand reality; they are in effect, “protobrands” that can be leveraged and transformed into registered trademarks which can derive revenue for their owners through reverse product placement or, more accurately, reverse brand placement. Examples include Harry Potter’s Bertie Botts’ Every Flavour Beans, now available as real candy manufactured by the Jelly Belly Company;
Duff Beer
Duff Beer is a brand of beer that originated as a fictional beverage on the animated series ''The Simpsons''. Beers using the Duff branding have been brewed in a number of countries, resulting in legal battles with varying results. An official ...
, a beer brand now available for consumption in Europe which initially appeared in ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
''; and
Staples' Dunder Mifflin paper, from TV show, ''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
''.
Purposes
Works of fiction often mention or show specific
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
s 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
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
may get clues from the brand of
cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
s smoked by a suspect; a film may include a commercial
poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
on the background, or show a package of cereal in close-up.
Real brands are often used. Sometimes a specific brand is needed due to its prior associations; e.g. the
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
machine scene in
Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's ''
Dr. Strangelove
''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and t ...
'' would not work with another, real or fictional, brand. 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
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
– 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
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have dev ...
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.
Sometimes, usually on television or movies, a real brand would not be permitted due to restrictions in advertising particular products, especially cigarettes and alcohol. Usually, a fictional brand would be created that bears some resemblance to a real brand.
Television programs made in Canada for the Canadian market are not permitted to show or mention real brand names except in certain specific circumstances. The CRTC's prohibition of product placement exists primarily to prevent producers from accepting
payola
Payola, in the music industry, is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under US law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to play on the air as spons ...
, especially if accepting it affects creative control or leads producers to attempt to deceive the audience (by, for instance, implying that X Brand Olive Oil is the best brand because the host uses it). In some instances (especially cooking and home improvement shows) brand names are merely inked, taped, or edited out; in dramatic presentations, however, fake brand names may be used. The restriction does not apply to news or current affairs programs when mention of the brand is necessary to fairly and fully present the subject matter, and it does not apply to televised sporting events, where branding may be beyond the station's control. Programs produced outside of Canada are not subject to these rules.
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
Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
* Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...
" 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
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
) where the real brand would not have existed anyway. Alternately, made-up brands are often more humorous than real brands, which is why a lot of cartoons and sitcoms prefer them.
Well-known fictional brands
Finder-Spyder
Finder-Spyder is a fictional
Web search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
that appears in numerous television shows, used in the same manner as the fictitious
555 telephone number in TV and film.
[ ()] It has been called "an unofficial, open source stand-in for Google and its competitors" (used as a legality-free alternative to a brand-name product),
and "the most popular search engine in the TV universe." Finder-Spyder appears as a top 10 pick in "best fictional brand" lists by various online media, along with
Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines, and less frequently, Oceanic Airways, is the name of a fictional airline used in several films, television programs, and comic books—typically works that feature plane crashes and other aviation disasters, with which a real ...
,
Morley cigarettes
Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Ma ...
,
Acme Corporation
The ACME Corporation is a name for the fictional corporation appearing in various Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, where it was used as a running gag due to their wide array of products that are dangerous, unreliable or preposterous.
Origin
The n ...
, and others.
Morley
Morley is a fictional brand of cigarettes with packaging that resembles
Marlboro
Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...
cigarettes. The name "Morley" is a reference to "Marleys", a once-common nickname for Marlboro cigarettes. Television programs began using Morleys in an era where Tobacco companies were allowed to sponsor television shows and pay for product placement. If no company agreed on a deal for product placement, producers would use a non-branded product like the fictional Morleys. Morleys are produced by The Earl Hays Press, a Hollywood
prop
A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...
packaging service.
Fictional brands lists
*
List of fictional beverages
Many works of fiction have incorporated into their world the existence of beverages or drinksliquids made for popular consumptionwhich may create a sense of the world in which the story takes place, and in some cases may serve to advance the plo ...
*
List of fictional vehicles
The following is a list of fictional vehicles.
List of lists
* List of fictional aircraft
* List of fictional cars
* List of fictional ships
* List of fictional spacecraft
Buses
Buses often appear as settings, or sometimes even characters, in ...
See also
*
Brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
*
Trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
*
Product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
*
Brand management
In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is per ...
*
Saturday Night Live commercial – frequently featuring fictional brands, many listed with this entry
References
{{Reflist
External links
Not a Real Thing: Sorting the Minutiae of Imaginary WorldsSearching for a Big Kahuna Burger
Branding terminology
Brands