These days, it isn’t normal to see a big-name brand in an anime or having anime characters promote a certain fast-food chain. Think of Weathering with You’s beautifully animated Big Mac scene, Code Geass’ romance with Pizza Hut, or literally every second of Tiger & Bunny.
That said, there once was a time when such product placement was a pipe dream. Due to how expensive featuring a name or logo for even just a few frames can be, animators worked around this with product displacement – often leading to some hilarious results, such as these.
10 CNN Expands Into ENN
CNN stands for “Cable News Network” and is a globally recognized news agency broadcast in almost every country on Earth. Theoretically, it would expand to representing all of Earth in a sci-fi epic or space opera, which is exactly what happened in Gundam SEED: Stargazer. ENN isn’t just a typo, but some cleverly subtle world-building.
By the anime’s point in time, Earth is basically its own nation, and humanity successfully colonized space. It wouldn’t be surprising to see CNN evolve into ENN (possibly Earth News Network). Every Natural is probably viewing on Earth or a Coordinator living in the PLANTs who want a snapshot of life on the planet.
9 Google’s Constantly Misspelled Variations
Google has become synonymous with everyday life that it’s now used as a verb instead of just a search engine’s name. Modern-day anime would be wrong to ignore this digital convenience, but for obvious reasons, not all anime studios could afford Google’s expensive branding. Enter tons of misspelled versions of the search engine that range from the minuscule to the hilarious.
Small but noticeable misspelled displacements include Geegle in Prison School, Goodle in Steins;Gate, and Moogle in My Hero Academia. One of the weirdest spellings comes from Hunter X Hunter, where the site has been renamed to borderline unpronounceable Uoogre (above). The latter was probably written in the Hunter world’s unique linguistic system.
8 YouTube Is Everywhere
Like Google, YouTube is synonymous with both online culture and modern society. The video-sharing site has proven to be both a benefit and challenge for current affairs, though anime usually focuses on its entertainment value.
Bootlegged versions include GodTube in Dragon Ball Super, MewTube in Steins;Gate, MyTube in Inuyashuki, and more. One of the most prominent examples came from My Hero Academia, where a young Midoriya watches All Might’s bus rescue on loop on YoTube. Interestingly, it seems that, like Youtube, YoTube changed with the times, evolving into Yap!Tube on mobile phones by the time of the school festival.
7 7-Eleven’s Ever-Changing Number
In real life, 7-Eleven already has a health relationship with anime. Aside from being a lifesaver for many, the convenience store had several anime promotional campaigns and even cameos. This didn’t stop it from getting parodied, though, such as 1-One in Himouto! Umaru-Chan, 6/10 in The World Only God Knows, 7-Electabuzz in Pokémon, and 8/11 in Haikyuu!!
Highschool of the Dead took this to a whole new level with Sevenson (above), completely abandoning the numbering convention in favor of a made-up name. At the very least, Sevenson still retains 7-Eleven’s aesthetic and architecture.
6 Somy Is The Anime Sony
Aside from the simple fact that Sony is based in Japan, the tech company has made countless appliances and conveniences inseparable from everyday life. This is especially prevalent in older anime from the ‘90s to the 2000s when clunky technology was the norm before the rise of more compact smart devices.
Sony’s bootlegged variations include Cony in Paranoia Agent or Tony in Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-Kun, but the most common is Somy. The latter can be seen in Elfein Lied, Full Metal Panic!, Negima!, and most recently, Haikyuu!! The latter even led to a collaboration between Sony and the popular volleyball anime, specifically through movie tie-in headphones and a walkman.
5 Railgun’s Macindows EXP Is A Mess Of Computer Brands
It’s impossible to state the importance of Apple and Microsoft's computer operating systems and devices in modern society, so it’s expected that they’d either be mentioned or lampooned in sci-fi anime. A Certain Scientific Railgun takes this up a notch by not only featuring the two but combining them to form a word salad of tech giants.
Desktop computers and laptops are seen in Judgment offices or classrooms bare weird amalgamations like Macindows EXP: Macindows BST Capable or Outel Cora i7 Outside, obviously taking cues from Apple’s Mac, Microsoft Windows, and Intel’s famous catchphrase “Intel Inside.” At the very least, this offers an answer to the Mac versus PC debate.
4 Gintama & The Bentendo OwEe Shortage
Gintama leaves no prisoners when it comes to its unapologetic parodies. It aimed at the then-brand-new Nintendo Wii gaming console and the insane levels of hype surrounding its debut. This wasn’t just a one-off gag, but an actual two-episode arc in the anime. Here, the Yorozuya trio tries (and fails) to get a Bentendo OwEe (stylized like the “owo” meme) on launch day, so they fight in a game show against the Shinsengumi, where the console is the prize.
What ensues are the usual Gintama hijinks, like video game spoofs and wanton slapstick violence. The arc ends with no one scoring an OwEe and Bentendo discontinuing the launch after the disastrous gameshow.
3 Case Closed’s Accidentally Vulgar KFC Clone
KFC is crazy popular in Japan, so much so that a bucket of Colonel Sanders’ chicken is a Christmas tradition. Because of this, it isn’t surprising to see KFC either directly promoted in an anime or affectionately parodied with a misspelled counterpart. Case Closed does this, and it wouldn’t have attracted attention if not for its unintentionally crass imitation.
The KFC in Shinichi Kudo’s world is named JFC. While this could stand for something like “Japan’s Fried Chicken,” it’s also the online abbreviation for a pretty rude swear-laced phrase someone would type as their surprised reaction. Without spelling the swears outright, let’s say it’s the kind of expression a devout Christian would prefer not to utter or read.
2 Steins;Gate & The Evolution Of DK Pepper
In Steins;Gate, the self-proclaimed mad scientist Okabe is so (hilariously) full of himself that he considers drinking Dr. Pepper an intellectual experience. Or rather, DK Pepper, since the animators understandably wanted to avoid a copyright lawsuit from the actual soft drink brand.
DK Pepper served as one of many tiny clues of the changing timelines since Okabe’s favorite drink changes a bit in each time-jump (ex. he supposedly likes DK Pepper Diet in one reality). This evolved into Doktor Pepper for the movie Load Region of Déjà Vu before reaching its final form in actual collaborations with Doctor Pepper. In fact, Steins;Gate is credited to a spike in Dr. Pepper sales in Japan, a market where the soda previously didn’t catch on.
1 WcDonald’s Is Anime’s Official McDonald’s
There’s no faux anime brand as well-known and beloved as WcDonald’s, anime’s answer to McDonald’s. Unlike previous examples, which messed up a certain brand name in their own silly ways, WcDonald’s has been spotted in almost every anime ever made, including Cowboy Bebop, InuYasha, Long Riders! (above), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ouran High School Host Club, and more.
WcDonald’s endures as a running gag in the anime community, and it took new life in 2018 when McDonald’s (possibly) acknowledged it. In support of International Women’s Day, the fast-food chain flipped its golden arches upside down to stand for “Women” instead of “McDonald’s.” Anime fans the world over promptly lost their minds upon seeing WcDonald’s become a reality.