Fictional brands
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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.
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[edit] 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.
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.
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.
[edit] Fictional brands lists
Please make additions to these lists there, and not on this article.
- List of fictional companies
- List of fictional drugs
- List of fictional stores
- List of fictional vehicles
[edit] See also
- Brand
- Trademark
- Product placement
- Brand management
- Saturday Night Live commercial -- frequently featuring fictional brands, many listed with this entry
