History Main / OfferVoidInNebraska

* Even the Internet falls victim to this. Because television shows are almost always licensed for viewing only in certain countries, online players will usually block users from foreign countries. Never mind asking ''why'' the networks prefer to limit their potential advertising base, but they do. Website/YouTube offers the ability to do this as well because it offers content from television networks. It's probably easier to list sites that ''don't'' do this. Unauthorized uploads on Vimeo and the like obviously don't count. This leads to such absurdities like a Sony ad not being viewable in Germany because it contains music by... Sony Entertainment. So if you're trying to view an official clip from ''Series/TheDailyShow'' in Australia, the "not available in your location" message mentions, "but hey, at least you have kangaroos and boomerangs." If you want to get past these, just Google Proxy Mate, Hola Unblocker (both for Firefox and Chrome), or just learn how to do proxies. For Website/YouTube, there is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Youtube Unblocker]].

* On a similar note, for most of the 1980s and 1990s, BBC UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland showed its local evening news magazine at an earlier time to the other BBC nations and regions. To do this, it would opt-out halfway through the final presenter link of Children's BBC. As part of this practice, the CBBC presenter would often say "Goodbye Northern Ireland!", a cue for master control to switch feeds from London to Belfast for the start of the news programme. Meanwhile, the presenter would be continuing for another minute or two for the rest of the viewers outside of Northern Ireland.

* An example of this played for comedy is in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sforhbLiwLA this]] Microsoft video made as a joke advertisement for Windows 1.0. Apparently this "advanced operating environment" was available everywhere, [[TropeNamers "except in Nebraska!"]] Explained [[https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Steve-Ballmer-say-except-in-Nebraska-at-the-end-of-the-Windows-1-0-ad here.]]

* Inverted in the UAE: Over 100 anime featuring a girl as a protagonist, including MagicalGirl anime, have been [[BannedInChina banned]] from or [[NoExportForYou never released]] in Arabic-speaking countries because of promotion of Zionism, sexual scenes or [[ValuesDissonance any elements featuring within the series that are against the Islamic law]]. Among those were ''Anime/CreamyMamiTheMagicAngel'', ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', ''Manga/SugarSugarRune'', ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', ''Anime/PuniPuniPoemy'' and ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura''. In TheNewTwenties, both ''Anime/SailorMoon'' and ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura'' became available in the UAE... but for expats only, this means that it excludes their citizens.

** The ad for a monster-busting product in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E6TreehouseOfHorrorVI Treehouse of Horror VI]]" states that Paul Anka's guarantee for the product is void in Tennessee. (Which, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of course,]] raised some WildMassGuessing about WhereTheHellIsSpringfield.)

* Eastpak backpacks have a lifetime warranty all over the world, but the warranty is limited to "only" 30 years in Germany, the maximum allowed by the civil code since lifetime warranties are illegal.

->''"To stop those monsters, one-two-three,''
->''Here's a fresh new way that's trouble-free.''
->''It's got Paul Anka's guarantee...''
->''Guarantee void in Tennessee."''
--> -- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Treehouse of Horror VI"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** The ad for a monster-busting product in "Treehouse of Horror VI" states that Paul Anka's guarantee for the product is void in Tennessee. (Which, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of course,]] raised some WildMassGuessing about WhereTheHellIsSpringfield.)
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the episode "Fear of Flying" where an official at Krazy Klown Airlines offers Homer and his family free tickets to anywhere in the U.S., "excluding Alaska and Hawaii, the freak states.".

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** The ad for a monster-busting product in "Treehouse of Horror VI" states that Creator/PaulAnka's guarantee for the product is void in Tennessee. (Which, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of course,]] raised some WildMassGuessing about WhereTheHellIsSpringfield.)

* The sketchy comedy show ''Tush'' on [[Creator/{{TBS}} Superstation WTBS]] in the early 80's would often have disclaimers on their fake ads stating 'Void where prohibited and, of course, in Wisconsin.'

** It's got Paul Anka's Guarantee. Guarantee void in Tennessee. (Which, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of course,]] raised some WildMassGuessing about WhereTheHellIsSpringfield.)

* UsefulNotesPuertoRico, UsefuulNotes/{{Alaska}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}} get excluded quite a bit as well, especially from travel offers. And long-distance calling or cell phone plans, though with how cutthroat competitive the industry is getting, this is steadily fading away.

* The Pacific territories – UsefulNotes/{{Guam}}, UsefulNotes/AmericanSamoa, and the UsefulNotes/NorthernMarianaIslands – are generally excluded from everything. So are the Atlantic territories – Puerto Rico and the UsefulNotes/UnitedStatesVirginIslands.

* [[Creator/TheBBC BBC One Scotland]] is exactly the same as BBC One in the rest of the UK, except when it isn't. For a long time this meant the continuity announcer trailing an exciting new programme, and then hastily adding "except for viewers in Scotland". This has become [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7scMC7YSDQ a bit of a meme]]; for example when Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond was on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'':

::On a similar note, for most of the 1980s and 1990s, BBC UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland showed its local evening news magazine at an earlier time to the other BBC nations and regions. To do this, it would opt-out halfway through the final presenter link of Children's BBC. As part of this practice, the CBBC presenter would often say "Goodbye Northern Ireland!", a cue for master control to switch feeds from London to Belfast for the start of the news programme. Meanwhile, the presenter would be continuing for another minute or two for the rest of the viewers outside of Northern Ireland.
* ''Armando Ianucci's Shows'' had a sketch where Armando is so sick of hearing about things being unavailable in his native Scotland that he has a nightmare where he dies and goes to Scottish Heaven, which only has smug documentaries and reruns of ''Taggart'' and is very dull.

* Inverted in the UAE: Over 100 anime featuring a girl as a protagonist, including MagicalGirl anime, have been [[BannedInChina banned]] from or [[NoExportForYou never released]] in Arabic-speaking countries because of promotion of Zionism, sexual scenes or [[ValuesDissonance any elements featuring within the series that are against the Islamic law]]. Among those were ''Anime/MagicalAngelCreamyMami'', ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', ''Manga/SugarSugarRune'', ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', ''Anime/PuniPuniPoemy'' and ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura''. In TheNewTwenties, both ''Anime/SailorMoon'' and ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura'' became available in the UAE... but for expats only, this means that it excludes their citizens.

* ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'''s play-at-home Lucky Case Game cannot be played by residents of North Dakota, Tennessee, South Carolina, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

* Ads for certain stores that have unrelated sister chains in Canada or Mexico (particularly Home Depot) will mention in the fine print/ending blurb that ads run in the US apply to the US only, just in case someone in a border town sees or hears them.
* Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Hawaii get excluded quite a bit as well, especially from travel offers. And long-distance calling or cell phone plans, though with how cutthroat competitive the industry is getting, this is steadily fading away.
* Another common phrase is "Open to residents of the 50 U.S. states [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the District of Colombia]]."
* The Pacific territories – Guam, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands – are generally excluded from everything. So are the Atlantic territories – Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

* Massachusetts, for a while, heavily regulated auto insurance and thus auto companies could not set their own rates. Despite this, advertisements claiming "safe driver discounts" and such are constantly being played on Boston TV with fine print at the bottom noting that you can't buy it in this state. This is also true in California.

* The Lifelock company, which basically promised to protect your identity from any theft, ever, but people still had it happen, including the founder of the company, who would demonstrate the products effectiveness by putting his Social Security number on billboards. Now, laws have been passed that make them unable to offer the anti-theft guarantee it still makes in some states. New York is the big one.

* Many contests can't be entered by people who live in Rhode Island because it has a specific law that requires the company to file a legal statement with the secretary of state before it can run a contest there and pay $150. Since Rhode Island is so small anyway, most companies just figure "why bother?" The same is true of Florida and New York (which also require security bonds!) but since they have large populations most people who run national-level sweepstakes just go ahead and pay the fees. And don't even get started thinking about New Jersey...
* If you live in Arizona, chances are you've felt the pain of seeing an awesome contest with tons of gear for the winner - but the fine print will say to the effect that the contest is not open to you, a resident of Arizona. The gaming magazine ''Tips & Tricks'' ran contests like this toward the end of its run, and the contest rules always said residents of Arizona could not participate. The editors actually addressed this when someone wrote in to complain; apparently it was just a matter of Arizona having restrictive laws when it came to contests, the most severe of all the states in the US.
* A lot of promotional giveaways in the 1970s or earlier would include in the fine print "Offer void in ..." followed by a laundry list of states. In most cases this was due to poorly-written laws that effectively prevented a company from ''giving something away for free'' if there was an element of chance involved, since that made it "gambling". Many of these states have revised their gaming ordinances since and will now allow, for example, [=McDonald's=] to run their "Monopoly" promotion, provided that the sponsor makes a way for people to get the game pieces without making a purchase. Wisconsin has an anti-gambling law that prohibits any events from occurring in-state if contestants must pay to enter, if there is a physical prize given out to the winners, and if there is any element of chance whatsoever. Due to this law, it's illegal in Wisconsin to have competitions for nearly all collectible card games, most video games, all pinball games, and a large number of popular board games, including ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'' and ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' unless entering is free, which would make the competitions financially impractical to run if they're giving out prizes.
* In November 2013, New Jersey legalized internet gambling, partly to try to reverse a long decline in gambling revenues for the state with the rise of casinos in New York and Pennsylvania drawing away would-be tourists to Atlantic City. Radio ads advertising this always add that would-be gamblers can only take advantage of this in the state of New Jersey - the law stipulates that you must be physically present in the state (enforced by GPS) in order to partake in addition to being 21; needed since said radio stations are located in New York and Philadelphia.
* Two states completely outlaw gambling in any form: Utah, mainly due to the strong presence of the Mormon church, and Hawaii.
* Green River, Wyoming, is noted as the birthplace of the Green River Ordinance enacted in 1931, which prohibits salespeople from selling door-to-door without the owner's express permission. Some variants of the G.R.O. prohibit all organizations, including non-profit charities, political, and religious groups from soliciting or canvassing any household that declares its express written intentions to be exempt from solicitors.

* In the United States, many fast food discounts are void in Alaska and Hawaii.[[note]]Sometimes even in the chain's Times Square location, due to it being a tourist trap.[[/note]] There's good reason for this. Alaska and Hawaii are part of the US, but are not in the contiguous US, so it takes more money to get the product shipped out there. For the same reason, Amazon Prime specifies that the fastest free shipping options are only available in the contiguous US.

* The infamous Westwood College "Tighten up the graphics" commercial was not intended for residents of Texas or Massachusetts.

* A jarring example for discounts and other goodies for Lasik Eye Surgery was played in California. Except towards the very end of the ad, it says "Offer void in California".
** Likewise, at least one [[NotAvailableInStores As Seen On TV]] company won't ship to Wisconsin, but still advertises there.

* Many circulars advertising sales on American flags in the Midwest will mention in fine-print that the offer is void in Minnesota. That's because Minnesota has a law requiring all U.S. flags sold in the state be made domestically, and these on-sale flags typically come from China.
* Many chains in New Zealand decided not to offer some products or sale prices at their airport stores. Probably justified with Burger King when it had the promotional Bomb burger...

* Lampshaded by Tony Kornheiser on ESPN's ''Series/PardonTheInterruption''. After the standard half hour, he and Mike Wilbon "toss it up to ''Series/SportsCenter''," but briefly interruptted (no pun intended) the latter show with an extra segment (for a period, this was the "Big Finish"), during which they truly close out their show. Initially, TSN didn't air this segment on its ''[=SportsCent=]'''re''''', so at [[EveryEpisodeEnding the end of every show]], Kornheiser waves a Canadian flag and says "Goodnight, Canada!" [=SportsCentre=] has since started airing the segment from time to time.

* Hungary has "Area 29" (referring to the phone area code) where phone and internet are mainly provided by [[http://www.upc.hu/29-es-korzet/?intcmp=29es-banner UPC]], but using very old infrastructure, resulting in both higher prices for the same bandwidth compared to the rest of the country, and many offers void in Area 29. This is notorious because many places in this area don't have other [=ISPs=] that would provide competition.

* T-Mobile's advertisements for 5G services notoriously have [[https://blog.solidsignal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-22-074941.jpg a giant Nebraska-shaped hole]] on their coverage map (other states on the western half of the United States have sizable gaps as well, but Nebraska is almost completely untouched). Much of this is down to infrastructural issues (Nebraska being a ''very'' rural state, and thus lacking the networks needed for 5G), issues with legacy networks from other companies, and the state not being considered a major priority

* Microsoft gave away a free copy of Music/TheRollingStones' "Start Me Up" as part of its Windows 95 20th Anniversary promotion. The catch is the offer is only valid in North America, West Europe including the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Live elsewhere? Clicking on the link on the blog site does launch the Windows store and takes you to the album's page... where you need to buy the song with your own money. Ouch. Even worse when it displays the album but claims that the album cannot be sold in your country, but searching for the song on the store does produce a result, except that it isn't free.

--->"You're watching Top Hat Entertainment. Adult programming all day, every day. Except in Florida and Utah."[[note]]The line refers to state and municipal ordinances in those two states attempted during the 1980s that sought to prohibit cable systems from transmitting objectionable content offered by mainstream and adult-oriented pay television services, through lawsuits filed by Creator/{{HBO}} and other groups, were struck down in district and circuit courts on First Amendment grounds.[[/note]]

* In Ecuador, there are 2 TV channels that have programming segmented by region: Ecuavisa and Teleamazonas[[note]]An egregious case since Ecuador is a small country and the rest of TV stations broadcast the same thing nationally.[[/note]]. Because of this, people who live in Quito and neighboring provinces see different programming than those who live in Guayaquil. Teleamazonas raises the bet UpToEleven by announcing programming on social networks with the disclaimer "except Guayaquil."

* After the promulgation of the General Data Protection Regulation, which heavily regulates the management of personal digital data, some international websites began to block EU users entirely or redirect them to stripped-down versions. Such websites include United States regional newspapers such as the 'Los Angeles Times'', which saw no reason to implement regulations for their few European readers.

* Microsoft recently gave away a free copy of Music/TheRollingStones' "Start Me Up" as part of its Windows 95 20th Anniversary promotion. The catch is the offer is only valid in North America, West Europe including the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Live elsewhere? Clicking on the link on the blog site does launch the Windows store and takes you to the album's page... where you need to buy the song with your own money. Ouch. Even worse when it displays the album but claims that the album cannot be sold in your country, but searching for the song on the store does produce a result, except that it isn't free.