Best Movie Fake Brands

Ten companies that never existed and still have better brand recognition than yours.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A cologne bottle on a newsroom desk with a cloud of green fumes rising from it, a panther-print tie draped beside it.

    10. Sex Panther (Anchorman)

    Adam McKay · 2004

    Brian Fantana's cologne, made with bits of real panther and illegal in nine countries. Omni Consumer Products later licensed a real version with sandalwood and cedar and, crucially, no panther. It works sixty percent of the time, every time.

  2. A smashed office printer in an open field, a baseball bat and a red stapler lying in the grass.

    09. Initech (Office Space)

    Mike Judge · 1999

    Judge grew it out of his animated Milton shorts: cubicles, TPS reports, eight bosses and a printer that earns what happens in that field. The film made $12.2 million on a $10 million budget, then sold over six million DVDs by 2006. Its rival is called Initrode.

  3. A fast-food burger, a paper soda cup and a tiki-print bag on an apartment coffee table, an open briefcase glowing beside them.

    08. Big Kahuna Burger (Pulp Fiction)

    Quentin Tarantino · 1994

    Jules takes a bite, declares it tasty and then ruins everyone's breakfast. The Hawaiian chain also turns up in Reservoir Dogs, Four Rooms and From Dusk till Dawn, and gets a mention in Death Proof. Thirty years in, it is still the only franchise Tarantino has kept going.

  4. A giant white sailor hat lying in a city street among scorched cars, melted marshmallow dripping off a fire hydrant.

    07. Stay Puft (Ghostbusters)

    Ivan Reitman · 1984

    The logo shows up early, on a marshmallow bag in Dana's kitchen and an ad on a building, so the payoff plays fair. Dan Aykroyd built it from a childhood marshmallow mascot, the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Real Stay Puft marshmallows arrived in 2010.

  5. Towers of stacked trash cubes rising over an abandoned city, a small boxy rover robot at their base.

    06. Buy n Large (WALL-E)

    Andrew Stanton · 2008

    The megacorp that sold Earth everything, buried it in trash and shipped humanity off on a 700-year cruise. Fred Willard plays its CEO on old video, still the only live-action speaking role in a Pixar film. A robot teaches babies that B is for Buy n Large. Effective.

  6. A dead, cracked cornfield under irrigation sprinklers spraying bright green sports drink.

    05. Brawndo (Idiocracy)

    Mike Judge · 2006

    The Thirst Mutilator replaced water, including on farms, and its electrolytes slowly killed the topsoil. Fox released the film in seven cities and it made under $500,000 worldwide. A real Brawndo hit shelves in December 2007 with 200 mg of caffeine. Plants were not consulted.

  7. A single shrimp trawler on calm water after a storm, nets bulging, wrecked boats scattered along the shore.

    04. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (Forrest Gump)

    Robert Zemeckis · 1994

    Hurricane Carmen sinks every shrimp boat but Forrest's, and Lieutenant Dan puts the profits into some kind of fruit company. Two years later Paramount and Rusty Pelican opened a real one in Monterey. There are 33 now. That's a lot of shrimp.

  8. A huge two-legged security robot toppled on its back at the bottom of an office stairwell, its legs in the air.

    03. OCP (RoboCop)

    Paul Verhoeven · 1987

    Omni Consumer Products runs Detroit's police, plans to bulldoze the city for Delta City and sells a robot that can't do stairs. The ads in its world push the 6000 SUX at 8.2 miles per gallon. In 2006 a real licensing company took the OCP name. Of course it did.

  9. A chocolate bar half unwrapped on a velvet cushion, the corner of a golden ticket peeking out of the foil.

    02. Wonka Bar (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory)

    Mel Stuart · 1971

    Quaker Oats bought the book and paid for the movie to launch a real candy bar, and the title switched to Wonka partly to tighten the tie-in. The bars hit a production problem and got recalled. The only fake brand on this list that financed its own film.

  10. A lone beer can and a steaming coffee mug on a steel mess-hall table aboard a dim spaceship, a heavy airlock door behind.

    01. Weyland-Yutani (Alien)

    Ridley Scott · 1979

    Ron Cobb named it, wanting to imply that England was back on its feet and had united with Japan. He started from British Leyland and Toyota, changed a letter and borrowed a Japanese neighbor's surname. Decades later it is still the worst employer in space.

Honorable mentions

  • A long row of identical unlabeled red-and-gold beer bottles lined up on a prop-room shelf under work lights.

    Heisler Beer

    Independent Studio Services · 1997

    Not one movie's brand but everyone's. The prop house dreamed it up in 1996, debuted it in The Rainmaker, and it has since been poured on It's Always Sunny, New Girl and Stranger Things. It is thought to be the only trademarked fake brand. The Bud Light of fake beers.

Dishonorable mentions

  • An empty wheelchair rolling off a cliff edge toward a lake, a fast-food soda cup spilled on the ground.

    Mac and Me

    Stewart Raffill · 1988

    The opposite problem: an E.T. knockoff so full of real McDonald's and Coca-Cola that one critic called it a 90-minute commercial. It cost $13 million, made $6.4 million, and Ronald McDonald won the Razzie for Worst New Star. Should have invented a burger.

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