History Main / CompetingProductPotshot

Contrast AdvertisingByAssociation. Compare StrawmanProduct, a more misleading version of this trope. Subtrope of TakeThat. Supertrope to CableSatelliteMudslinging and AttackOfThePoliticalAd. See also DamnedByAFoolsPraise if users of the competing product are depicted as [[StrawLoser idiots, jerks, and creeps]].

Sometimes this can be a double-sided battle, in the case of [[UsefulNotes/PepsiChallenge the famous Cola Wars between Pepsi and Coca-Cola]]. Other times, it can be one-sided, boosting one's popularity (in the case of the Sega Genesis) or ruining its reputation (in the case of the Atari Jaguar). The fandom will often latch onto these potshots as reasoning to create a FandomRivalry between the two products, creating a feedback loop where the commercials appeal to the fans by mocking the competitors more. Some famous instances of this are the UsefulNotes/ComputerWars and the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars.

* The UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars were full of mudslinging in the 90s.

** A 2021 Pepsi campaign targeted [=McDonald's=], Burger King, and Wendy's, which all serve Coke products, by boasting about a study claiming Pepsi tastes better with burgers and showing ads with {{Extreme Close Up}}s of those restaurants logos and one with those restaurants' three respective mascots clinging to cans of Pepsi. As part of the campaign, the Pepsi company would pay back customers who drink a Pepsi with a burger and post it on social media.

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': The ColdOpen for "Chickens" shows two commercials for chicken restaurants. One is a cheap fast food place called Chicken-4-Dayz, a parody of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The other, Gentle Farms, begins its own commercial by calling out how Chicken-4-Dayz keeps chickens in tiny cages and pumps them full of hormones. Since the Gentle Farms farmer is a chicken himself, he promises they give the chickens on ''his'' farm a more fulfilling life. As the episode continues, however, it becomes clear that the treatment of meat in the show's universe is inhumane in any case, since the CarnivoreConfusion is resolved by breeding and genetically modifying sentient animals to become meat instead.

* InUniverse in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Mr. Plow," when Barney starts his Plow King commercial by destroying a wooden cutout of Homer, who runs the competing plowing company Mr. Plow. Linda Ronstadt joins Barney in singing a song that accuses Mr. Plow of being an alcoholic loser.

* The advertising for Billabong Ice-Creams Lime Spider flavour contained the slogan "A lime spider is better than a lame lion", a very mean "take that" aimed at Paddlepop ice-creams, whose mascot is a lion.

* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discord_(software) Discord]] used to advertise itself to potential users by encouraging them to "ditch Skype & [=TeampSpeak=]".

* Back in TheEighties, when commercial UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} was in its infancy, a vendor called "MT XINU" (which is [[TradeSnark "UNIX™"]] [[BackwardsName spelled backwards]]), published [[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashaferian/Drive/master/Mt.Xinu%20BSD%20Poster.png this poster]] depicting a 4.2 BSD-powered X-Wing speeding away from an AT&T logo writhed in flames, with the {{Tagline}} "4.2 > V." [[labelnote:longer explanation]]AT&T had just lost their long-running antitrust lawsuit regarding the Bell System and were being forced to divest it; however, as a ConsolationPrize, they were being allowed to sell computers (and thus UNIX) at retail, which led to UNIX System V's first release in 1983. However, System V was slow, expensive, and had many gratuitous changes to it that many UNIX hackers, who cut their teeth on the older and faster UNIX Version 7, found unappealing compared to the not ''quite'' as slick but more featureful releases from the University of California at Berkeley (the B in BSD). MT XINU was one of the first companies to port and package BSD, and System V made AT&T an easy target, especially considering their new logo at the time -- which they still use a variant of in TheNewTwenties -- strongly resembled the [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]]... As for the TradeSnark, it comes from an example of OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope that dates back to the mid-1970s and eventually became a meme; AT&T insisted that all mentions of UNIX in ads and documentation be qualified with a "UNIX? is a trademark of Bell Labs" disclaimer.[[/labelnote]]

-->-- UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis {{slogan|s}}

* Creator/{{Apple}} often makes commercials mocking its competitors, especially UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows.
** The famous Super Bowl ''Advertising/NineteenEightyFour'' commercial that heralded the first UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh, was meant to portray then-dominant Creator/{{IBM}} as the manipulative, monopolistic Big Brother.

* The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis was known for its famous advertising campaign "Genesis Does What Nintendon't," targeting the leading competitor, the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem. They eventually softened up and dropped the slogan after a while.
* The UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar used some of its condescending advertising to demean its competitors with its "64-bit" console[[note]]actually 2 32-bit processors[[/note]], which has been considered instrumental in its failure.

* A Panasonic UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer commercial from the mid-1990s depicted a UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES being dropped into a toy box, insinuating that those systems are simply children's playthings, with the narration "If you're not playing with a Panasonic 3DO system, then what ''are'' you playing with?" The commercial then cuts to footage from various 3DO games, then it cuts back to the toy box with the narration saying something along the lines of "It's time to put away your toys." It then abruptly cuts to a picture of the 3DO logo as we hear a gunshot.
* At the 2013 E3, Microsoft announced that it would allow publishers making games for the Xbox to prevent used games from working or people from sharing games and other intrusive DRM policies. Sony responded with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA a devastatingly short ad]] where sharing a UsefulNotes/Playstation4 game simply involved handing the disk over to another person.
* A UsefulNotes/SegaCD commercial featuring rapper Chill E.B. opened with him yelling, "Hey! You still don't own a Sega CD? What're you waiting for, Nintendo to make one?!"
* Ads for ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'' on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation had a guy dressed as Crash show up at Nintendo headquarters with a megaphone, to taunt "Plumber-Boy". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTi5EaocGaY "You're hurting my elbow!"]] When Crash started appearing on Nintendo consoles, ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' had a faux-interview with Crash in which this trope was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d with Crash saying something to the effect that his antics in the commercial were "Nothing personal, it was all business-related."
* Commercials for the Sega UsefulNotes/GameGear would often mock the UsefulNotes/GameBoy's monochrome screen:

* At 2001's E3 conference in Los Angeles, while Sony was having problems with not having enough UsefulNotes/PlayStation2's on the shelves, Sega drove a truck around the parking lot with a large message printed on the side: "Our condolences to Sony regarding their console shortage problems." This was accompanied by an even bigger picture of a young boy sticking his tongue out.

* Microsoft's UsefulNotes/XBox360 campaigning was full of shots at the UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation3}}S3. Highlights were crashing Sony's live broadcast launch party held on a ship by parking another ship in the background with a large Xbox 360 poster on the side, and Microsoft employees offering chairs for people queuing up for game stores on launch day, each chair decorated with an advert for a website where you could read Microsoft's sympathies for people having to wait in rain when they could have just played a 360 ages before.

* ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams'': One ad for the game ends with a UsefulNotes/PlayStation being thrown off a skyscraper while the narrator taunts it with "fly, [=PlayThing=], ''fly''."

** The Nerd parodied the commercials for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis in his "Sega Genesis Vs. [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]]" video. In his commercial, the Nerd is playing a SNES until an announcer says, "Hey, kid! You still playing Super Nintendo? Look what Sega Genesis has got!" After a montage of Sega Genesis games is shown to rock music, the announcer says "And Super Nintendo has got this." and shows a clip of Baby Mario crying in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland''.
** The UsefulNotes/SegaCD review opens with a parody of a real ad for the system, in which a black man appears on a dimwitted kid's TV and says "Hey! You ''still'' don't own a Sega CD? What are you waiting for, ''Nintendo'' [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} to make one]]? You ''have'' seen the games, ''right''?" before blasting the kid with fast-paced clips from the Sega CD's library. In the parody, both characters are played by the Nerd (with the man receiving a RaceLift as a result).

* There was an Esurance commercial narrated by Creator/JohnKrasinski that stated that Esurance didn't need a mascot to sell insurance. Definitely a TakeThat to rivals Geico (the gecko), Progressive (Flo), and Aflac (the duck); but [[SelfDeprecation also one for themselves]] -- up until a few years ago, they had a popular mascot of their own named Advertising/ErinEsurance that they're [[AbandonedMascot hoping you'll forget]].

-->"That explains everything! We kicked their butt 200 years ago and now they're using microwaves to reheat their Whopper meat to get even with us!"

* WWE launched one against Wrestling/HulkHogan for jumping ship to TNA. In the opening video for all WWE programming, they removed the "Hulkamania is running wild" sound byte, replacing it with Wrestling/TedDiBiase's Catchphrase "Everyone's got a price."
** WWE also, coincidentally, had a new Hulk Hogan DVD coming out of some of his classic matches. Once Hogan signing with TNA had been announced, the commercials made sure to note that the matches on the DVD featured Hogan "in his prime."

* With [[Wrestling/LukeHarper Brodie Lee's]] reveal as Wrestling/TheDarkOrder's "Exalted One", he says to Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, "You're not [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon the first out of touch old man]] to not believe in me."

-->''"I hope they keep running the spot because they're doing a great job advertising that feature for us. Thirty-two percent of the 2009 F-150s we've sold have that tailgate step. We're doing really well with it, and we're really happy they're running that ad because it's proven to be a popular feature."''

* When Apple moved their Macs from Intel CPUs to their own ARM-based processors, Intel felt betrayed and [[https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/02/12/intel-targets-m1-weaknesses-in-youre-not-on-a-mac-ad-campaign launched campaigns against M1 Macs]].