[HN Gopher] Fictional Brands Archive
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       Fictional Brands Archive
        
       Author : wallflower
       Score  : 145 points
       Date   : 2023-04-19 22:14 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fictionalbrandsarchive.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fictionalbrandsarchive.com)
        
       | benj111 wrote:
       | Morley cigarettes?
        
       | JStanton617 wrote:
       | The America First Party was most definitely NOT a fictional brand
       | - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Party_(1943)
        
         | jjulius wrote:
         | Seems there is nuance involved.
         | 
         | >The fictional movement resemble some real associations that in
         | the same period had similar intents.
         | 
         | https://fictionalbrandsarchive.com/item.php?id=98
        
           | tokai wrote:
           | The Plot Against America is alternative history and build on
           | real people, organizations, and events. They are the same
           | organization. But I guess that means that I can add the
           | Catholic Church from Hyperion as a fictional brand too.
        
       | Brendinooo wrote:
       | No love for Let's Potato Chips?
        
       | leotravis10 wrote:
       | No love for IBN?
       | 
       | It's the fictional IBM from the Steins;Gate series of visual
       | novels, anime, and games which uses the IBM (IBN in this case)
       | 5100 Portable Computer.
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | It's a good start. One might populate a lot more database from
       | Wikipedia. For example:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brawndo&redirect=...
        
         | ZeroGravitas wrote:
         | And
         | 
         | https://fictionalcompanies.fandom.com/wiki/Brawndo
         | 
         | And
         | 
         | https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Q1462364...
        
       | 404mm wrote:
       | Submitted Veridian Dynamics. Hopefully it will be added :D
        
         | Ishmaeli wrote:
         | I submitted Initech over a week ago and still don't see it.
        
       | AlbertCory wrote:
       | Hey, I have one of those as a T-shirt:
       | 
       | https://fictionalbrandsarchive.com/item.php?id=110
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | genericacct wrote:
       | needs more ono-sendai
        
       | teh_klev wrote:
       | If you think they're missing a brand they have a form here to ask
       | them to add new brands:
       | 
       | https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdt2aXH-AnZkjTaqJKH...
       | 
       | There's also an email address where I suppose you could send
       | correction requests:
       | 
       | hello@fictionalbrandsarchive.com
        
         | rendall wrote:
         | I looked immediately for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. A
         | definite oversight.
        
           | teh_klev wrote:
           | You should "Share and Enjoy" with them this oversight :)
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Boy, E Corp sure does look familiar...
       | 
       | https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron
        
         | gaius_baltar wrote:
         | The show goes a bit deeper in the references to it. Second
         | season shows some widespread blackouts/burnouts due to events
         | from the first one.
         | 
         | This entire show is a jewel of good storytelling (and technical
         | accuracy that should already have captured the attention of HN
         | folks)
        
       | UncleSlacky wrote:
       | No Zik-Zak or Network 23?
       | 
       | https://www.maxheadroom.com/index.php?title=File:Mh-zik-zak-...
        
       | aaron695 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | sizzzzlerz wrote:
       | Kruger Industrial Smoothing, Seinfeld, season 9.
        
         | itcrowd wrote:
         | Vandelay Industries (!)
        
       | samplenoise wrote:
       | This made me check if there is a similar thing for fictional
       | bands. Not really; but there's a few articles, like:
       | https://variety.com/lists/best-fictional-bands-movies-tv-sho...
        
         | codazoda wrote:
         | Hurry, build it and add Driveshaft to the list.
        
       | adrian_mrd wrote:
       | A companion of sorts is Nestflix [0]: "Fictional movies within
       | movies... Fake shows within shows... Browse our selection of over
       | 700 stories within stories."
       | 
       | [0] https://nestflix.fun/
        
         | theandrewbailey wrote:
         | My brother asked once if Angels with Filthy Souls was a real
         | movie.
        
         | mablopoule wrote:
         | Awesome !
         | 
         | My favorite "movie withing movie" idea is "Wormhole X-Treme",
         | the Stargate TV-show within the Stargate SG1 TV-show.
         | 
         | They use it for self-deprecating humor, by e.g. lampshading the
         | sometime easy scenaristic shortcut they take, with some
         | episodes where the "real" Stargate SG1 cast would (secretly)
         | serves as advisor for Wormhole X-Treme spoof tv-show.
         | 
         | On top of that, the justification for it is absolutely genius:
         | Because that way, the (in-universe) army could quell any rumor
         | of the existence of the Stargate Command by simply saying "No,
         | that from a TV-show, duh!".
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | SG1 also had some nice parodies in episode 200:
           | https://youtu.be/whfMMfR4KKw
        
       | speps wrote:
       | It's missing some Microsoft ones like Contoso:
       | https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120803-01/?p=69...
        
         | teepo wrote:
         | That was the first one I looked for as well. Also Volcano
         | Coffee Company, AdventureWorks, the always enjoyable Northwind
         | Traders. (I recall working on a Visual InterDev project that
         | had the Northwind e-commerce store). There's a bunch of others
         | as well:
         | https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/...
        
         | kotaKat wrote:
         | I was thinking that too, but this archive focuses specifically
         | on media (film/series/video games) as per its info page[1]
         | 
         | https://fictionalbrandsarchive.com/info.php
        
       | computronus wrote:
       | The Wipeout game series has a broad set of racing companies
       | complete with in-universe histories and branding that evolves
       | with each release.
       | 
       | https://wipeout.fandom.com/wiki/Teams
        
         | Eduard wrote:
         | The Designers Republic did an incredible work by providing
         | wipEout with its signature Y2K aesthetics.
         | 
         | The fictional brand logo animations in wipEout 3's intro still
         | give me futuristic goosebumps a quarter century later:
         | https://youtu.be/DaI_084xDsg
        
       | kyle-rb wrote:
       | Only 116 entries? The fictional companies wiki has over 1000.
       | 
       | https://fictionalcompanies.fandom.com/
        
         | leotravis10 wrote:
         | I like that archive quite better since it has many others like
         | IBN (IBM) for example.
        
         | 1000100_1000101 wrote:
         | Both the article and this wiki are missing some big entries,
         | like all the fake businesses in GTA. Rockstar even had websites
         | for them back in the day.
         | 
         | Eris running shoes. PetsOvernight.com. Pisswasser beer. Gruppe
         | Sechs armoured cars.
        
       | seabass-labrax wrote:
       | I like the attention to detail and the background information on
       | this site. However, it looks like the form to add a new entry
       | requires signing in with a Google account, which is a shame.
        
       | GuB-42 wrote:
       | It is going to be a long list.
       | 
       | Roleplaying games for instance have entire lists of them, and I
       | am sure there is a video game somewhere that generate them
       | procedurally, making the list effectively endless unless you have
       | some kind of notability criteria. There are hundreds listed in
       | here https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MegaCorp and it
       | is just the megacorps, there are many more that are not "mega".
        
         | ghostDancer wrote:
         | Arasaka appeared in Cyberpunk 2020 RPG long before the video
         | game Cyberpunk 2077 used it.
        
         | inkcapmushroom wrote:
         | I'm not positive but it looks like the list is limited to
         | brands that have a specific, recognizable logo and name, which
         | appear in visual media. So that should at least narrow it down.
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | I think whatever is generated locally cannot be canon, since
         | the world cannot know about it.
        
           | GuB-42 wrote:
           | It is canon within your game, and it may ascend to being a
           | true world canon if your game becomes notable enough.
           | 
           | But generally, I agree, I was just commenting about how many
           | there are and how easy it is to create new ones, a lot of us
           | probably made a few of them. Making a fictional brand is a
           | common exercise in business or design schools, it can be done
           | in creative writing, as an example for a presentation, in a
           | role-playing campaign, or just for fun. If anything goes, we
           | may be in the billions.
        
       | marl0 wrote:
       | How did Pied Piper not make the list?
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | No Veridian Dynamics either. They even have ads to get a feel
         | for their corporate style from:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEEBE7_-aMM
        
       | sva_ wrote:
       | I've seen Duff beer in stores. I wonder what other fictional
       | products have made it into real life.
        
         | rippercushions wrote:
         | Wonka Candy was a Nestle brand of candy.
         | 
         | US Robotics was a major modem manufacturer (but not robots).
         | 
         | IOI is a large Malaysian palm oil producer.
        
           | isleyaardvark wrote:
           | The whole reason the 1971 movie was made was because Quaker
           | Oats had already decided to release "Willy Wonka" branded
           | candy. That's why Quaker Oats funded the movie, and why the
           | title differs from the book, because Quaker Oats insisted
           | "Willy Wonka" be in the title for the tie-in.
        
         | iSnow wrote:
         | IDK which one was first, but "Alpha Industries" exists as a
         | mil-tech fashion brand: https://www.alphaindustries.eu/uk
         | 
         | Even the logo is kind of similar.
        
           | Adrox wrote:
           | The company was founded in 1959 and its pretty famous for
           | they bomber-jackets.
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Industries
           | 
           | Either the designer in the movie didnt remember he "copied"
           | it, or didn't care...
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | Acme is a large East coast supermarket chain.
         | 
         | "Acme" as a brand name was very common in a number of
         | industries and predates Looney Tunes.
        
       | ericrallen wrote:
       | If anyone has screenshots of KrebStar Industries products from
       | the Adventures of Pete and Pete, please feel encouraged to submit
       | it to the database (and post here that you've submitted it) or
       | share a link to the screenshots, so I don't spend the whole day
       | getting lost down that rabbit hole of nostalgia.
       | 
       | Here's a list of KrebStar products:
       | http://pnp.norecess.org/kreb.html
        
         | regus wrote:
         | I came here to mention Krebstar as well.
        
       | lucas_membrane wrote:
       | TFA missed Darlington Electronics Inc. of "Real Genius."
        
       | bombcar wrote:
       | No Octan. No love.
        
       | zabzonk wrote:
       | ubik - pk dick - everything
        
       | BirAdam wrote:
       | It's cool, but it needs Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, among many
       | others mentioned here.
        
       | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
       | Is there to submit corrections or additions? I couldn't find
       | anything about it on the website; I must be missing it
        
         | tkgally wrote:
         | There's a link to a form for submitting additions here:
         | 
         | https://fictionalbrandsarchive.com/info.php
        
           | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
           | Thanks
        
       | willcipriano wrote:
       | No Binford Tools? No Setec Astronomy? No Strickland Propane?
        
         | myself248 wrote:
         | Setec Astronomy was never the name of a fictional company, even
         | in-universe they didn't pretend it was a front operation or
         | anything. Merely a phrase, more of a password.
        
       | speed_spread wrote:
       | It's missing Buttfucker's and Tarrington from Idiocracy, amongst
       | others. "If you don't smoke Tarrington, Fuck You!"
        
       | sizzzzlerz wrote:
       | They could fill their database from the Simpsons. Just some of
       | what they missed:
       | 
       | Osaka Food Concern
       | 
       | Laramie Cigarettes
       | 
       | Krusty Burgers
       | 
       | Powell Motors
       | 
       | Chalmskinn Productions
        
       | cjsawyer wrote:
       | The FONY (ie SONY) logo in Akira is really important to me. It's
       | a flawless pun, a fake brand, and does it in only 4 characters!
        
       | jimjag wrote:
       | No Yoyodyne? John BigBoote is gonna be sad
        
         | cafard wrote:
         | Are we going to attribute it to _Gravity 's Rainbow_ or to
         | Buckaroo Banzai?
        
       | enginaar wrote:
       | US Robotics sold modems in late 90s
        
         | dsr_ wrote:
         | They named the company after the fictional one in Asimov's
         | stories.
        
       | usrusr wrote:
       | Who put Rebel Alliance and House Atreides in there? Terrible lack
       | of focus, turns it from an interesting study into a random list
       | of stuff from fantasy worlds people like to ramble about.
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | >The term fictional branding refers to the design and use of
         | brands that do not refer to any service, product, company or
         | organization that actually exists. They can come to include any
         | type of brand, as well as political institutions, military
         | organizations, and more.
         | 
         | https://fictionalbrandsarchive.com/research.html
        
           | JasonFruit wrote:
           | Yes, it's a part of the plan, but the point still stands: it
           | dilutes what could have been a focused, interesting
           | collection.
        
             | boomboomsubban wrote:
             | You can set the filter to "private" and get your focused
             | collection. Or somebody interested in fictional political
             | brands can filter by political and get their focused
             | collection.
        
           | usrusr wrote:
           | I don't disagree with the observation that fantasy entities
           | like rebel alliance and the empire they are rebelling against
           | are built using many of the same mechanisms brands are built
           | with, and with similar goals (recognizability). But it's
           | still ruining the focus of that list. Why not include
           | dwarves? Or Robin Hood's merry men?
           | 
           | If it was "fictional logos", those star wars flags might have
           | their place, but Atreides? Yeah, supposedly there's a falcon
           | on their coat of arms, but I couldn't tell if that particular
           | form is from the most recent movie, from a game or some fan
           | art. And it's been only a few weeks since I've seen that
           | movie, there can't be much visual brand going on if I don't
           | recognize.
        
       | FuturisticLover wrote:
       | There are so many can be added not just from movies but tv shows
       | and anime as well. For example, Capsule corp from DBZ is quite
       | famous. Then there is Incite Inc from Westworld and Westworld is
       | not a company but a park created by Delos.
        
       | abruzzi wrote:
       | Where is "Blammo" the maker of Log?
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-21 23:01 UTC)