Advertising Tropes

aka: Commercials Tropes

"I've lived all my life in this weird wonderland;
I keep buying things that I don't understand,
'Cause they promise me miracles, magic and hope,
But somehow it always turns out to be soap."

— "Chim Chim Cheree" by Allan Sherman, a parody of "Chim Chim Cheree" from Mary Poppins

An index of tropes about the advertising, marketing, and promotion of commercial products.

These are usually Tropes Hidden from Audience, in order to compel them to act or buy.

See Advertising for a list of works.

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General:

Main:

• Advertising

Categories:

• Basic Commercial Types
• Coming Attractions
• Film Posters
• Mistruth in Marketing
• Trailers
• Weasel Words

• 30-Day Free Trial
• Absolute Comparative
• Absurd Brand Name: When the name of the product or service is something you wouldn't expect a marketing team to approve.
• Abusive Advertising: Ads that threaten to harm anyone who doesn't buy the product being advertised.
• Ad-Break Double-Take: An establishing shot or establishing line that appears on both sides of a commercial break.
• Ad Bumpers
• Ad Dissonance
• Ad Reward: Advertisements used in lieu of paying real money for players to gain additional in-game bonuses.
• Advert-Overloaded Future: Advertisements will be everywhere in the future.
• Advertisement Game
• Advertising by Association
• Advertising Campaigns
• Advertising Disguised as News
• Advertising-Only Continuity: Commercials for merchandising tie-ins depict events that are not consistent with the canon of the work the merchandise is a tie-in of.
• All-Natural Snake Oil
• Allegedly Free Game: A game is advertised as free, but is made so that playing it can still cost money.
• Animate Body Parts
• Annoying Pop-Up Ad
• Appliance Defenestration
• Asbestos-Free Cereal: A product advertises an irrelevant or universal feature as if it is something unique and/or special.
• Attack of the Political Ad
• Beer Commercials
• "Before" and "After" Pictures: A commercial for a dietary product or anything else that could improve physical appearance demonstrates product effectiveness by showing a picture of the customer before they used the product and a picture depicting the customer after they used the product.
• Better Than New
• Billboard
• Bite the Wax Tadpole: Slogans and brand names that do not translate well overseas.
• Blipvert
• Blue Liquid Absorbent
• Brand Name Takeover
• Brand Names Are Better
• Brand X
• Breakaway Advertisement
• Bumper Sticker
• Cable/Satellite Mudslinging
• Character Shill
• Christmas Creep: Selling Christmas-related stuff out of season.
• City Shout Outs
• Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys
• Colbert Bump: An obscure thing gets more attention after being referenced in a more well-known work.
• Commercial Break Cliffhanger: An episode of a television show ends on a cliffhanger right before the commercial break, the cliffhanger being resolved once the commercial break is over.
• Commercialized Christmas
• Commercial Pop-Up: A trend of a commercial blurb in the form of a "pop-up" style graphic (audio optional) during a show.
• Commercial Switcheroo: It looks like they're selling one product, but it turns out the commercial is for a different product.
• Competing Product Potshot
• Consumer Conspiracy
• Corporate-Sponsored Superhero
• Crunchtastic
• Dada Ad
• Damned By a Fool's Praise: Insulting a work by having a dumb or unpleasant character like it.
• Damned by Faint Praise
• The Dead Rise to Advertise: An advertisement has the product endorsed by deceased celebrities.
• The Dinnermobile
• Deceptively Simple Demonstration
• Design Student's Orgasm
• Disney Owns This Trope
• Dualvertisement
• Embarrassing Ad Gig
• Enforced Plug
• #EngineeredHashtag
• Everything Talks
• Excuse Question
• Eye Catch
• Face on the Cover
• Fake Food
• Fake Video Camera View
• For Your People, By Your People
• Forced Meme
• Fourth Wall Greeting
• Free Prize at the Bottom
• Freemium
• Get the Sensation
• Ghost in the Machine
• Gourmet Pet Food: Pet food is advertised as fancy.
• Gratuitous Special Effects
• Head-and-Hip Pose
• Here Comes the Science
• Hive-Mind Testimonial
• Homogenous Multinational Ad Campaign
• Hope Mongering
• iProduct
• Imagine Spot
• In-Universe Marketing
• Insane Proprietor
• Internet Ads
• Invisible Advertising
• Itasha: Cars painted or stickered with cartoon characters (usually those from anime/manga).
• Japandering
• Jerks Use Body Spray
• Kitschy Local Commercial
• Let's Meet the Meat: Sentient food portrayed as eager to be eaten.
• Letters 2 Numbers
• Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition
• Lite Crème
• Logo Joke
• Made in Country X
• Mail-Order Novelty: A tchotchke advertised in a magazine or comic book, which (usually) just ends up being utterly useless.
• The Man Is Sticking It to the Man
• Mascot: A fictional character used to represent a product or company.
• Men Buy from Mars, Women Buy from Venus
• Merchandising the Monster: A dangerous villain or evil force being used for all ages marketing, but in universe.
• Microtransactions
• Misaimed Merchandising: A work of fiction has advertisements and merchandise tie-ins that appear to miss the point of the work's story or message or come off as very strange to the people who have seen the work.
• Model Couple
• Modeling Poses
• Never Needs Sharpening: A glaring design flaw is spun to make it seem like a desirable feature.
• New and Improved
• New Look, Same Great Taste!
• Obsessive Spokesperson
• Offer Void in Nebraska
• Operators Are Standing By: A product is implied to be limited time only by saying that operators are awaiting calls.
• Organ Autonomy: Independently sentient body parts have a good chance to appear in commercials, especially if the product advertised is food, drink or medication.
• Our Product Sucks: The advertisement unabashedly states that the product advertised is worthless, either as Self-Deprecation or to manipulate customer interest via Reverse Psychology.
• Our Slogan Is Terrible: A slogan that stinks.
• Overly Cool Play Space: When toys (or other things meant for children) are shown in environments kids probably didn't set up.
• Parity Product Paradox
• Parody Commercial: A comedy sketch consisting of a commercial for a fictional product.
• Parody Product Placement: A work pokes fun at the concept of Product Placement.
• Payment Plan Pitch
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: Replacing a letter (or part of a letter) with an image of something else with a similar shape. Often used in title logos.
• Pistol Pose
• Polish the Turd: The advertisement lies about the product being better than it actually is.
• Poverty Porn
• The Power of Cheese
• Pre-Order Bonus: Pre-ordering a video game gets you exclusive content.
• Product as Superhero
• Product Placement: A work of fiction features real-life products.
• Product Placement Name
• Product-Promotion Parade
• Product Switcheroo Ad
• Propaganda Piece
• Public Relations Ad
• Publicity Stunt
• Repeating Ad
• Reverse Psychology Marketing
• Ridiculously Loud Commercial
• Rigged Contest
• Scare Campaign
• Scare 'Em Straight: A public service announcement tries to persuade people to avoid doing bad things by convincing them that terrible things will happen to them if they end up straying from the straight and narrow.
• Self Promotion Disguised As News
• Sex for Product: The ad convinces the viewer that they'll be more successful with the gender they are attracted to if they use this product.
• Sex Sells: Ads use fanservice to try and sell the product.
• Sexy Packaging
• Shaving Is Science
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: A very poor ripoff of the actual product that's in high demand.
• Side-by-Side Demonstration
• Side Effects Include...
• Sigil Spam
• Similar to the Show
• Slices, Dices, and Makes Julienne Fries
• Slogans: A clever statement associated with the advertised product explaining why the audience should buy it.
• Stealth Cigarette Commercial
• Stepford Consumer
• Strawman Product: The advertisement tries to mislead the audience into believing that what's advertised is better than the competition.
• Stuck on Band-Aid Brand
• Subliminal Advertising
• Subliminal Seduction
• Super Bowl Special (also known as FIFA World Cup Special)
• Surprise Release: A work is released the same day it’s announced.
• Taglines
• Talking Pest
• Tape Switch
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change
  • Sequel Logo in Ruins
• Token Trio
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: The ad tries to convince the audience the product is needed by showing people without the product being unable to do what the product is designed for.
• Totally Radical: The ad uses outdated slang in a misguided attempt to appeal to the younger generations.
• Unfortunate Ingredients
• Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise
• Up Marketing
• Up to __ or More: Deceptive discount offers.
• Very False Advertising
• Viral Marketing
• "Wanted!" Poster
• We Care
• We Don't Suck Anymore
• What Were They Selling Again?: The ad is so weird or disturbing that the audience quickly forgets what was being advertised.
• Wolverine Publicity
• Xtreme Kool Letterz

Breakfast Cereals:

• Adjacent to This Complete Breakfast: An ad for a sugary breakfast cereal claims to be part of a complete breakfast, when it's more accurate to say that it is next to a far more healthy breakfast.
• Cereal-Induced Superpowers
• Cereal Vice Reward: The ad shows consumers indulging in immoral or even illegal behaviour in order to obtain the advertised product, supposedly because it is just that good.
• Magically Delicious

Disclaimers:

• *batteries not included
• Do Not Attempt
• I Approved This Message
• Motor Mouth
• Rattling Off Legal: The voice-over rapidly mentions legal disclaimers as the commercial nears its end.
• Unreadable Disclaimer

Medical:

• I'm Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV
• Nine out of Ten Doctors Agree
• Side Effects Include...
• Spice Rack Panacea

Music:

• Isn't It Ironic?: A licensed song that is used to promote a product has lyrics or a true meaning that is either irrelevant or the complete opposite of the subject matter, usually because the ad-makers didn't bother to listen to more than one line of the song, or took it at face value.
• Jingle: A song that is used to advertise stuff.
• Phone Number Jingle
• Repurposed Pop Song: A pre-existing song is repurposed as an advertising jingle.
• Top Ten Jingle

Stock Phrases:

• ...And 99¢
• But Wait, There's More!: Telling the audience that their product has more features in case they haven't become interested yet.
• If You Call Before Midnight Tonight
• It Works Itself
• Not Available in Stores
• Now How Much Would You Pay
• Please Subscribe to Our Channel
• This Product Will Change Your Life
• Viewers Like You

Notable Venues:

• Prime Time
• Saturday-Morning Cartoon
• Super Bowl

Other:

• Advertising Campaigns
• B-Roll: Illustrative, often publicitary footage inserted into real-time broadcasts.
• Mad Men

Reactions to advertising:

• Ad Turds

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