Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Can't Anime Use Trademarked Names?
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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I'm most familiar with seeing WcDonald's, but KFC and Colonel Sanders used to pop up a lot in older works too.
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ChromeEagle
 Posts: 34 |
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A series with similar notoriety/budget, Aoharu x Kikanjuu, also received some licensing. (First image) However, I'm intrigued by cases such as this one (Second image) from New Game!. A few firearms, particularly Ahagon's very-obviously-modeled-after-an FN Five-seveN, are never labeled or mentioned as such. But unlike with "WcDonald's" or "7-Twelve", the creators don't go out of their way to distinguish it from the real-world counterpart. Perhaps it's just because they don't have to? 
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Hikarunu
 Posts: 950 |
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Oddly, anime series GJ-bu use McDonald real brand name. Is that show was sponsored by them or what?
Makoto Shinkai movie Your Name use lot of real life products. Computer, video game console, Twitter, Line, Google and Wikipedia. Last edited by Hikarunu on Wed Oct 26, 2016 3:51 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Another thing I wonder about is cars. Anime will often feature recognizable cars although they often render them without logos (i.e. the white pickup seen in Non Non Biyori is a Suzuki Carry, also sold as a Mazda Scrum) or modified logos (i.e. the "Banda" in Patlabor, which is really a Fiat Panda), although some anime will get permission to use logos if the vehicles are a major "character" in the show (i.e. the Honda Today/Beat in You're Under Arrest).
A non-anime example is Archer which uses very accurate 3D models of recognizable, often iconic, cars though usually without showing the logos.
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are owned by the same company, Pepsi (Pepsico), but, back in 1993, Taco Bell wasn't nearly as recogizable a brand overseas as Pizza Hut. I think they shot alternate scenes for the international market, or maybe it was just dubbed in. (It was kept as Taco Bell when I saw it in English in Montreal, which didn't have Taco Bell at the time as far as I remember.) |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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If I am remembering correctly Cat Planet Cuties featured A&W rather prominently.
It looked to me like deliberate product placement. EDIT: I just found out that A&W Okinawa was involved in the production of the show. |
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XLord31
 Posts: 14 |
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Standing By!!!! Complete!!!! |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
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I've always loved how ubiquitous "WcDonald's" with the upside down arch is across anime. My first memory of it was from the ending of Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, but I'm sure it was used many times before as it has continued to be used for many years after...
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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I think it's of note the Sudoh-Bucks in Toradora was probably lampshading this as well as being used as a way to avoid using a trademarked name since it is noted in series that it IS a ripoff of a major chain and the main character even wonders why it hasn't been sued for intentionally ripping off a major chain yet.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4428 |
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Yes, trademarks are the ones that must be actively defended. Whether or not it is worth it varies, but each instance where it is ignored can be used to say that the trademark is no longer unique enough to deserve protection. Also, unlike copyrights, there is no automatic protection from the start. Getting it registered requires a certain amount of proof that only you should be allowed to use it. That is a big part of why you'll see a lot of TM on things, since the owner hasn't or couldn't get it registered, but still wants to assert some ownership. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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7-Eleven and McD are companies in Japan, and as we know from music rights, you don't use ANYTHING in Japan that doesn't belong to anybody else. 
As for product plugs, they're known to happen over there, but just for movies, which need the extra funding, unlike TV series. (Except for the Tenchi household, where everyone is allowed to use Pioneer cameras and TV's.) Space Dandy's use of pseudo-Hooters, or other series' "Wacdonald's" or KFC clones, can also comes off a parody of American corporate influence, so it's just as much a joke to ridicule them as "tacky" as well as to dodge the license. As for movies, however, you can see flat-out loving commercial placement for McD, Yoshinoya, or Coke. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3651 |
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My favorite (non-anime):
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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Depending on the company most want money to use their trademark in a Anime so rather than have to pay them and spend all the time and effort contacting them to get permission it's easier to just make a similar parody name. Also like Justin mentioned even if they are cool with allowing the logo/product placement they may restrict the scene or context to preserve the branding.
Some times companies will give permission if you ask and not charge for their logos. And in some instances like in the Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 Movie companies paid for product placements in the film. I'm guessing if the trademark was ok in Japan but removed when licensed in other territories that the contract specified for only in the region of Japan so it had to be removed or pay more money/get additional permission if sold elsewhere. One way to get around it, that I've seen is either place a person or object to block the trademarked logo so that you can read it enough to know what it is, but obscure it just enough that it's not completely displayed. I remember in one of the episodes of my all time favorites Gunsmith Cats they had a can of Pepsi the old red and blue can. Some other item in the fridge blocked the logo vertically half way just enough so they didn't have to get permission and or pay Pepsi for the product placement. Another way is to alter the logo just enough for it to be qualified as a parody. Like in the Initial D 3rd Stage Movie, Takumi is wearing a pair of Nike shoes but the swish logo had another smaller swish logo cut out of it just enough to know what the brand is all while skating paying Nike. Last edited by Dfens on Wed Oct 26, 2016 5:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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Well what's interesting with that scene is that for when the movie was made (around 2010) both Win 95 and that particular computer model (an NEC PC-98) were long since off the market. Win 95 was discontinued in 2000 and the PC-98 in 2003. So they weren't really "product placing" those (since no one could or would want to buy them) as much as illustrating just how ridiculously old the computer was - the school probably bought it around 1996/97 - but KyoAni is generally so meticulous about everything that it's hard to imagine them not getting permission from Microsoft and NEC to specifically include those shots anyway.
Not just the sports shows. Your Lie in April had Steinway on board as a sponsor, and there was the OVA One Off with its Honda ties. And Wish Upon the Pleiades, of course, whose Subaru sponsorship manifested in several different ways, some of them (like actually calling your main character Subaru) much more obvious than others. I thought all three of those shows generally handled that stuff well, though. |
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SnowyLightning44
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I was thinking about this recently actually because I thought it was interesting that in All Out! they were using the Gilbert brand Rugby balls
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Sparvid
Posts: 240 |
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I read an interview with a director whose movie debut included a scene where a character was clearly shown reading a certain newspaper. When a friend of his saw the movie / rough cut, he said something like "Oh, so you made a deal with this paper to get some extra income?" and the director was like "Wait, I could've done that? No, I just picked a random paper we had lying around, and ended up giving them free advertisement..."
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