Branding is Everything

September 15, 2023 2:02 PM

Even in fiction, brands are important. In a richly-illustrated discussion, members of the Barbie, Wes Anderson, and Adult Swim design teams share their thoughts on bringing the fictional brands to life and furthering the story.
posted by bbrown (10 comments total)

Mentioned in the article, but worth calling out separately: The Fictional Brands Archive
posted by bbrown at 2:11 PM on September 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

wow!!! that archive is so amazing. we don't really think about how embedded even fake brands are in our cultural consciousness.
posted by supermedusa at 2:23 PM on September 15, 2023

Fictional Brands Archive is missing Yoyodyne, which spans Pynchon, Buckaroo Banzai, Angel, Star Trek, Silicon Valley GNU General Public Licenses and further.

Can't wait to dig into this article, especially the Erica Dorn/Wes Anderson part.
posted by obsoletefuture at 4:35 PM on September 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Wait a minute. Is Barbie now owned by Warner Bros?
So many of those images looked like Mattel stuff.
posted by MtDewd at 5:20 PM on September 15, 2023

Anybody else have a hankering for a Crusty Burger?
posted by Splunge at 6:15 PM on September 15, 2023

It doesn't have Morley cigarettes either! Or Let's potato chips.
posted by potrzebie at 6:50 PM on September 15, 2023

Nor does it (or that fictional companies wiki) have Corley Motors
posted by aubilenon at 7:31 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hmm, they have Duff Beer and Buzz Cola but not Krusty Burger or Kwik-E-Mart? Although, I guess I'm also not 100% sure what the criteria for inclusion is.

Also, not sure where to place things like Heisler beer which appears in a variety of shows because they're a very commonly used prop beer.
posted by mhum at 7:37 PM on September 15, 2023

Wow, even from a visual standpoint alone, that was well worth checking out.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:24 AM on September 16, 2023

There's no Mao-Kwikowski from The Expanse. Savage Industry's (as in mefi's own) is in that show too, but that also exists in real life (albeit not with those products/services) so I'm not sure how that would fit in.
posted by stevis23 at 7:59 AM on September 16, 2023