Basic Trope: Manufacturers of breakfast cereals and snack foods marketed towards children include a small toy or other novelty at the bottom of the package, under the food.
- Straight: Billy finishes up a box of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs. As he pours the cereal, a toy car falls out into the bowl.
- Exaggerated: Billy gets a real car. Never mind that he won't be able to drive it for at least another ten years!
- Downplayed: The box contains a small sticker at the bottom.
- Justified: The manufacturers of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs want to get children excited about their product, so they include a toy.
- Inverted:
- A toy company gives away a free sample-sized box of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs with their toys.
- Alternatively, the toy comes with Corrugated Bran Puffs, mostly marketed towards health-conscious adults who may not even have children or grandchildren to give them to.
- Subverted:
- Instead of a toy, Billy has to mail in box tops or a coupon on the back of the box to get a toy car. (Or, in The New '10s and beyond, a QR code that he or his parents can scan to get the prize.)
- Rather than a toy, the prize at the bottom is a savings bond, intended to help send the kids who find them to college.
- The manufacturer has a giveaway of great toys, but not at the bottom.
- Double Subverted:
- Everyone still expects a prize from the makers of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs.
- There's a ticket at the bottom of each box that can be exchanged for a toy.
- Parodied:
- Billy reaches into the box and gets a toy car, while his sister Annie mails in box tops and gets a real car.
- The toy is so big that no cereal can fit in the box.
- Zig Zagged: Some boxes have prizes, others don't.
- Averted: Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs doesn't have a prize inside, a code or coupon to redeem for a toy, or box tops to mail in for a prize.
- Enforced: Two Decades Behind
- Lampshaded: "There's a toy inside every box of Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs!"
- Invoked: The manufacturers want to get kids excited about their product, so they advertise during Saturday Morning Cartoons and after-school TV blocks, and provide toys at the bottom of the boxes.
- Exploited: The manufacturers want to sell their cereal, so they add this as an incentive to buy it.
- Defied:
- Laws prevent the marketing of sugary foods to children, so the company doesn't do this.
- In the age of technology, they simply provide a QR code to scan.
- Discussed: "I wonder if there's a free prize inside?"
- Conversed: "Why does all TV show cereal have prizes inside?"
Hey! There's a Free Prize at the Bottom of the page!
