For a company as big as Warner Bros., you'd think they'd use more than just tape.
Sometimes the logos in the Title Sequence just aren't enough. Maybe the companies that made the series, film, or game are taking pride in their work, maybe they just like Easter Eggs and Freeze Frame Bonuses, or maybe they're poking fun at themselves or at the higher-ups. Either way, they're literally leaving their mark within their media, as well as out.
Logos are the most common form of this, though other forms, such as direct namedrops and initialisms, exist too.
A Sub-Trope of The Cameo. Compare with Creator Cameo; this trope encompasses a company at large, while that trope highlights particular people. The two can possibly overlap, though (such as a game having a Developer's Room based on the company itself, which contains appearances from people who worked on it). See also Product Placement, which in this case is a meta placement of the company itself, Company Cross References, which are nods to other works that are produced or owned by the same studio (or another that they work under), and Console Cameo, where a game references the hardware that it's on.
Examples:
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Alternate Reality Games
- Omega Mart: Two of the products sold at Omega Mart are Lil Meow Gruel for Cats and Healthy Wolf Lonely Hiker Protein Feast, which are a reference to Meow Wolf, the art collective that created Omega Mart. In case you don't get the hint, a whole aisle is dedicated to both products, with Lil Meow Gruel and Healthy Wolf alternating every other row and column.
Anime & Manga
- Hirohiko Araki’s studio Lucky Land Communications has as its logo a badge with a hand on it. This badge as well as the Lucky Land phrase appears in various places in Araki’s manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
- One episode of Lucky Star has the girls take a selfie in front of Kyoto Animation's studio during a class trip.
- In Martian Successor Nadesico, the Show Within a Show Gekiganger 3 is credited in-universe to the series' own creators, Xebec.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Mirai can be seen mending a t-shirt with Sunrise's then-logo on it in the third Compilation Movie.
- The first episode of Super Dimension Fortress Macross has Hikaru crash his Valkyrie into a building adorned with the logo of co-producer Studio Nue.
- Zombie Land Saga: The series' eye catches depict various landmarks around the Saga Prefecture, and one episode shows off the new (at the time) headquarters of co-producer Cygames.
Asian Animation
- Boonie Bears:
- Logger Vick's Swiss army flag in The Adventurers 2 has series company Fantawild Animation's logo, a square with multiple colors and a T in white, on the actual flag.
- In The Adventurers 2 episode 35, wondering what would happen if he found the monster said to be nearby the forest, Logger Vick imagines he is being interviewed by multiple news reporters, one holding a microphone with Fantawild's logo on it.
- The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf spin-off Mr.Wolffy, Mr.Right! takes place in a building modeled after Creative Power Entertaining's real building, with the logo and several pieces of artwork from their other works appearing in the background.
Films — Animation
- In Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, a movie is shown on the airplane to London that contains the logo of Paramount Pictures, the company that distributed this movie.
- Ralph Breaks the Internet has an extended sequence where Vanellope visits the Disney website.
Films — Live-Action
- Anchors Aweigh: At one point, Susan goes for a screen test at the MGM Studios in Culver City.
- Animal House: During the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, it is said that Babs went on to become a tour guide on the Universal Studios Tour.
- In The Cat in the Hat, there is Product Placement done for Universal Theme Parks. Universal Studios made this movie.
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie: When Daniel asks how Karen Bitterman could own so much property in the Kermit-less universe, Kermit remarks "Corporate synergy, it's out of control", as he lifts his flipper to reveal the logo of producer and broadcaster company NBC on the sole.
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): The Transamerica Pyramid is prominently featured in the background throughout the film. At the time, the Transamerica Corporation owned United Artists. During filming, the crew joked that their masters were watching them from on high.
- Jumanji: The Next Level: One of the players in Jumanji is a Pegasus named Cyclone, in a shoutout to TriStar having produced the first Jumanji film.note
- The Matrix Resurrections: Smith informs Tom that their parent corporation, Warner Bros. (who produced the trilogy), wants a fourth installment of Tom's popular Matrix game series.
- The New York Hat: In this 1912 short, the "AB" logo of production company American Biograph can be seen on the wall of the living room where Miss Harding sometimes meets the friendly reverend, and where she tries on her fancy hat. This was actually an anti-piracy device practiced by Biograph, because in the early silent era film piracy was rampant.
- Road to Utopia: At one point during the sledding across Alaska, Bob Hope's character points to a mountain and says to "get a load of that bread and butter", when Crosby says it is just a mountain, Hope replies that it might be a mountain to Crosby, but to him it is his bread and butter; the Paramount Logo then forms around the mountain.
- Space Jam:
- The first film has Daffy Duck proudly declaring that his butt is "Property of Warner Bros."
- The sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy features an introduction to the Warner Bros. Server-verse through a reverse shot of the 2021 Warner Bros logo.
Live-Action TV
- During the first two years of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood the show intro would begin every episode with a house resembling the NET logo in the model neighborhood and the show would end on a shot of the same house. NET was the channel where the show aired for its first two years before moving to PBS when it replaced NET.
- Money Heist: La Sexta, a channel of Antena 3's parent company Atresmedia, appears numerous times with its news program to broadcast news relating to the heists, even after Netflix's acquisition of the series from Season 3 onwards. They even keep the program's real-life newsreaders as the speakers.
- Odd Squad:
- In the episode "Olive and Otto in Shmumberland", the publishing company of the Shmumberman comic series uses the logo of Sinking Ship Entertainment, one of the companies that produces the show.
- The 100th episode of the show, "The Sandwich Project", has the Mobile Unit agents visiting Pittsburgh, which is the home base of Fred Rogers Productions, the other company that produces the show, although they don't visit the studio (presumably because it's not open to the general public).
Pinballs
- Dialed In!: The main display is presented as a news broadcast from JJP Channel 8. The Alphabet News Network alludes to Jersey Jack Pinball, the company that made the game.
Radio
- Our Miss Brooks was sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive for most of its radio run (although not its coexisting television run). Palmolive used the program to promote its "Lucky Goldmine" contest in story. For example, in "Game at Clay City" Walter and Harriet try to guess the latest clue. The most notable Company Cameo was in the July 31st, 1949 episode, "Connie's New Job Offer". One morning, Mrs. Davis informed Miss Brooks that the (real) winner of $49,000 was the personal secretary for a mayor of a small New Jersey town. In this story, Miss Brooks had once worked for the same mayor! Connie considers returning to her old job. It was sure to be open now, the secretary having won $49,000 in the Colgate-Palmolive "Lucky Goldmine" Contest! Ultimately, Connie decides against going back to New Jersey and chooses to remain a teacher at Madison High School.
Toys
- Several LEGO sets feature LEGO merchandise being sold in them, such as the LEGO City set "LEGO Truck" and the LEGO Monkie Kid set "The City of Lanterns".
- Transformers:
- A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the first episode of Transformers: Energon reveals that High Wire's motorbike mode is manufactured by franchise co-producer Takara.
- The first issue of The Transformers: All Hail Megatron shows a wide-shot of Times Square, including shops adorned with the logos of franchise producers Hasbro, Takara, and Tomynote .
- An issue of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye includes a young kid named Brandon wearing a t-shirt with Hasbro's 80's-era logo on it who filmed Grimlock's rampage in Amarillo, Texas. He also compares Grimlock (a robot dinosaur) to a Zoidnote .
Video Games
- Adventure Island II stars Hudson Soft's bee mascot as a secret collectible found early in the game.
- In Age of Empires II, using the "Marco" (reveal map) and "Polo" (remove Fog of War) cheats in the William Wallace tutorial campaign's first mission will reveal that the bottom-right corner of the map has a bunch of trees that spell out the logo of game developers Ensemble Studios.
- Alice: Madness Returns: The logo of developer Spicy Horse can be found graffitied on the back of a statue outside the temple at the end of the Oriental Grove by using Alice's Shrink Sense.
- Alpine Racer
3 has banners advertising Namco on the sides of tracks.
- AmsterDoom has posters for Davilex Software, the game's developer, in the subway stages.
- Animal Crossing: Nintendo often makes minor cameos in this series, with one of the earliest being a bench bearing their logo and website URL.
- Banjo-Tooie: Rare's logo can be seen in several places in Grunty Industries, including blue-colored barrels that have to be exploded with Grenade Eggs to unveil a Jiggy.
- Barry Steakfries:
- Coins in Jetpack Joyride occasionally appear in a formation that spells out "HB", short for Halfbrick Studios. Arcade port of the game features two additional coin patterns that spell out "Sarbakan" and "ADRENALINE" (for "Adrenaline Amusements"), who developed and published it respectively.
- Jetpack Joyride 2 has a similar coin formation that spells out "HALFBRICK".
- BattleTech (2018): Among the available emblems for your merc company are the Harebrained Schemes rabbit mascot and the Paradox Interactive platypus fossil.
- Bayonetta 3's 2021 gameplay reveal trailer has a billboard reading "Platinum" on the right at the beginning. Viewers who noticed this were able to work out that Bayonetta's latest game had escaped Development Hell before the lady herself appeared about a minute and a half later.
- Borderlands: Any weapons or equipment not made by one of the series' in-game companies (such as those given out as pre-order bonuses or through special events) have Gearbox Software as their manufacturer.
- Burnout developer Criterion Games' bulldog logo and wordmark appear in various places throughout the series, whether it be a trackside billboard or as one of the various sponsors on several cars.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: In the Empire mission "Rage of the Black Tortoise," the headquarter of EA Los Angeles, the development team of the game, is stationed close to the Empire base. Humorously, you can destroy the building as it is considered a hostile target, with its description stating that destroying the studio would cause damages to the space-time continuum.
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled references its developers, Beenox, a few times:
- Their logo can be seen on the entrance of the second tunnel with sharp turns in Android Alley.
- One of the various livery packs you can buy is the Beenox Pack◊, which includes their name, logo, and color scheme among four characters, a vehicle sticker, a vehicle paint job, and a set of wheels. Beenox Robot Geary in particular is based on their former mascot.
- The last update to the game added Beenox Crates, which have the company's logo on the sides, to every racetrack in the game. There's a secret reward for breaking all of them.
- CrossCode has some references to its creators, RadicalFishGames — mainly in the form of the bespectacled, mustached, top hat-wearing fish mascot featured in their logo:
- Early versions of the game had "Sir Radfish van Blubb", whose dialogue sprite was the company's logo itself. He was used to give messages from the developers, and is decidedly non-canon.
- The Developer's Room has a desk decoration◊ based on the fish from their logo.
- One sidequest has you fighting against another in-universe player named Sao. After defeating him, his Sore Loser complaints get him booted from the game by RadicalFishGames themselves.
- In the credits of the "A New Home" DLC, you fight "RadFish" - blue fish with mustaches, top hats, and sunglasses, just like the mascot.
- Early versions of the game had "Sir Radfish van Blubb
- Crush 3D has several unlockable robes to wear. Among them are a blue one with publisher Sega's logo on it for getting all the Marbles in the final level, and a white one with developer Zoë Mode's logo on it for completing all the levels in the third world, Funfair.
- Donkey Kong:
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest:
- Starting with this game, Diddy Kong's red cap has consistently been depicted with a Nintendo logo on it.
- The title screen shows Diddy and Dixie opening a chest full of loot. Among that loot is the golden R that was part of Rareware's logo at the time (long before it eventually returned to an update of that logo).
- Cranky's Monkey Museum contains the logos of both Nintendo and Rare among the various objects in the background.
- The backs of the cards in Donkey Kong Land 3's memory match minigame have Rareware's R on them.
- In artwork for the original Diddy Kong Racing, Timber's hat has the golden R of Rareware's logo on it. In the DS remake it instead has the Nintendo DS logo on it, though Timber's Balloon Pop, a Flash game formerly hosted on Nintendo's official website, instead gave it a Nintendo logo similar to Diddy's cap.
- Donkey Kong 64:
- The small arches leading to Tiny Kong's racing mission in Frantic Factory have Rareware's golden R in the middle of them.
- The secret 201st Golden Banana, hidden in a room next to the Banana Fairy Queen's throne room, has a Rareware sticker on it. (The other 200 Golden Bananas spread throughout the game instead have stickers with the Nintendo 64 logo on them.)
- Two major collectibles that are required to reach the Final Boss are the Nintendo Coin, which has the N64 logo on it, and the Rareware Coin, emblazoned with the company's golden "R" logo (unlike the Rareware Golden Banana, it doesn't have the blue box surrounding it). Both items are hidden in Embedded Precursors of games made by the companies earlier; Nintendo's is rewarded for completing round 2 of Donkey Kong, while Rare's randomly spawns as a pickup when you earn 5000 or more points in Jetpac, a game made by Rare back when they were known as Ultimate Play The Game.
- The final boss battle is a boxing match stated to be "brought to you this evening by Rare and Nintendo in association with K.Rool Enterprises."
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest:
- EarthBound has an ad for HAL Laboratory on a billboard in Threed and a building in Fourside booked for a meeting about the creation of EarthBound 2. Only APE Software Development team members are allowed inside, though.
- EXTRAPOWER has the Lucky Lamp appear as secret Easter Eggs in EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance and EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist. In Star Resistance, the lamp can be found by performing a Final Crash on background objects in stages 3 and 5, and by destroying Mookin's head in Stage 4. On top of granting bonus score, the lamps grant power up, life up, or max life up depending on the stage they're found in. For Giant Fist, the Lucky Lamp is hidden in specific tiles in certain stages. Finding it releases the Lucky Djinn, who grants unlimited use of special attacks and the use of EXTRAPOWER attacks without needing to be at low health. Not bad for finding the company logo!
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game: In the Stylized versions, advertisements around New York City depict the logos of Red Fly Studios and Atari, the developers of the game.
- Jet Set Radio references its publisher Sega a handful of times:
- The semi-trucks have mudflaps reading "SEGA".
- Grind City has signs advertising sega.com.
- In the HD rerelease, you receive five bonus graffiti tags to customize your spray with for unlocking the final Secret Character, and the Large one is a stylized Sega logo.
- Just Cause has a few nods to the series developers, Avalanche Studios:
- Just Cause 2 has Avalanche Tires, which are the tires of choice for the majority of standard vehicles.
- In Just Cause 3, their logo appears◊ on the heels of Rico's boots.
- Just Cause 4 has the Avalanche Studios Deck Chairs, which boast the studio's logo on the back. You can sit in them to watch the scenery, hang out with animals, and pass time on the In-Universe Game Clock.
- Kirby references its creators, HAL Laboratory, several times throughout the series:
- A recurring Easter Egg throughout the series is the HAL Room, so named because it contains those three letters built into the room itself. Other games that don't have such rooms will often find a way to hide the letters elsewhere, such as Kirby's Blowout Blast having coins appear in three separate locations of the final level that are arranged to spell "H", "A", and "L".
- Starting with Kirby Super Star Ultra, one of the possible transformations of the Stone ability is a golden box with HAL's logo, the Dream Hatcher, on the front of it.
- In Kirby's Return to Dream Land and every later main Kirby title, another possible Stone transformation is HAL Laboratory's Yamanashi R&D Center (with Mt. Fuji in the background). After Kirby repairs the Lor Starcutter, Magolor takes them to his home planet Halcandra, which is named after HAL.
- Kirby: Triple Deluxe has a collectible Keychain depicting a "Golden Egg Statue", which is the HAL Laboratory logo as it appears in its Stone transformation in Super Star Ultra.
- Kirby: Planet Robobot has HAL's Dream Hatcher as a collectible sticker that can be placed on Kirby's Robobot Armor, and the villainous Haltmann Works Company is named for them.
- In the Japanese version of Kirby Star Allies, the Jambastion is called "Jamahalda", and the larger Jambandra Base is called "Majuhalgalor".
- The three corporations in the background of Kirby and the Forgotten Land are called Holine, Alivel, and Lightron, which spell out "HAL".
- A recurring Easter Egg throughout the series is the HAL Room
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has a long-term sidequest in the form of the Nintendo Gallery, an empty museum that you end up filling with figurines of every character in the game by showing their photos to Carlov the sculptor.
- LEGO Adaptation Game:
- LEGO City Undercover: In the mission "High Steal", one of the Police Shield fragments is earned by building three builds in one of the areas. One of the builds is the current Traveller's Tales logo.
- Lego The Hobbit: In the mission "Barrels out of Bond" from The Desolation of Smaug story, one of the obtainable items is the Traveller's Tool, which is in the shape of the current Traveller's Tales logo and it awards more loot when mining with it.
- In LEGO The Incredibles, one of the Family Builds in downtown New Urbem is for the current Traveller's Tales logo.
- LEGO Jurassic World: In the mission "San Diego" from The Lost World: Jurassic Park story, Ian and Sarah find the escaped T-Rex at a Traveller's Tales Fusion gas station.
- Little Inferno is a game by Tomorrow Corporation about burning things in the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace, which is produced by the in-universe company also known as Tomorrow Corporation.
- Mad Rat Dead: There are boxes in certain stages labeled "NIS.co.jp", referring to Nippon Ichi Software.
- In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the logo of the FOX unit is the same as that of Kojima Productions.
- Milon's Secret Castle has the bee icon of its developers Hudson Soft as a collectible powerup which grants Milon a shield.
- Mortal Kombat 9: Billboards belonging to WB Games and Nether Realm Studios appear in the Subway stage.
- Overwatch: D.Va's default outfit, her pink, white and blue pilot suit, boasts the logo of Overwatch creators Blizzard Entertainment on the right leg below the other (fictional) logos.
- Pac-Man World 2 has 189 collectible tokens emblazoned with Namco's logo, which reward you with various unlockables as you find them.
- Pokémon:
- The headquarters of Game Freak, the company that makes the Pokémon games, appears in several mainline titles. It's often loaded with Creator Cameos.
- Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Game Freak logo appears on Leon's cape as one of his many sponsors.
- The Atari 7800 port of Pole Position II has visible signs with Atari logos by the racetracks.
- Psychonauts has the logo for Double Fine show up as a figment in the Meat Circus.
- Throughout the Punch-Out!! series, Doc Louis has random tips telling Little Mac to join Nintendo's external services. In Mike Tyson's... and ...Featuring Mr. Dream, he says to join the Nintendo Fun Club; in the Wii Punch-Out!!, he begins to say "Nintendo Fun-", but since that program had been defunct for two decades by the game's 2009 release, Doc corrects himself to "Club Nintendo". In Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!, a game which was only available by getting a code from Club Nintendo, he thanks Mac for having joined the club.
- Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo has a billboard you can click on that shows ads for various other Humongous Entertainment games; the last one makes it [Trope Name] by simply saying "Shameless Humongous Entertainment self-promotion to be placed here."
- The Raskulls series likes to include Halfbrick Studios' logo in them:
- In the original game, the King has a pile of literal half-bricks, which he often ties messages to and uses them as a means of delivering letters to his servants.
- As a reference to the above, one of the attacks King has in the crossover game Battle Racing Stars is a Brick Throw, where he throws said bricks forward. After upgrading them to level 3 they start resembling Halfbrick's logo, though they're not cut in half like the actual logo is.
- Magic Brick Wars: In the Mines sections of the game, a Halfbrick logo can be randomly found on the floor.
- Ratchet & Clank:
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando has a video game console called the Insomniac Game Pyramid◊, based on Insomniac Games, in Clank's Megapolis apartment. As its name implies, it's a small pyramid with Insomniac's full moon logo on the sides. You can use the Dynamo on it to play Sheep Invaders prior to unlocking the minigame in the Extras menu, and you can destroy it to get a few thousand bolts.
- A recurring bonus area is the Insomniac Museum, so named for Insomniac Games, which appears in Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, A Crack in Time, and Ratchet & Clank (2016). In the first three games, the location's layout is based on the studio Insomniac worked in, and gives information and tidbits about the development of those games, including design choices, concepts, and Dummied Out or otherwise unused content. In the 2016 game, it's instead a warehouse that's host to a bunch of assets, props, pictures, and more from across the franchise's at-the-time 14-year history. In Up Your Arsenal and A Crack in Time, its planet model (and map icon, for the latter) are also based on the full moon that was Insomniac's logo at the time.
- Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank were developed by High Impact Games rather than Insomniac. These two installments have a location called the High Impact Games Treehouse instead of the Insomniac Museum, but it serves the same role.
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando has a video game console called the Insomniac Game Pyramid
- The final stage of Rugrats: Search for Reptar, "Reptar 2010", has the logo of publisher THQ on one of the buildings, and it's possible to attack it just like the rest of the buildings - likely inspired by the episode of the cartoon with the same name having a building with Rugrats creator Viacom on it get destroyed by Reptar.
- Scribblenauts: The last main constellation of Super Scribblenauts is the logo for the developers, Fifth Cell.
- It's quite common for the Shin Megami Tensei series to have something show up with an Atlus branding on it; for example, Nocturne and Persona 4 both have Atlus vending machines.
- In all four campaigns of Shovel Knight, Pridemoor Castle has an Offscreen Start Bonus with a treasure chest sitting under a ceiling. If you attack the ceiling, its tiles explode and reveal behind them an 8-bit rendition of Yacht Club Games' logo.
- Played with in The Simpsons Game, where, to progress in the fifth level, Lisa has to put together a square, circle, and triangle in order, and the characters then comment that it looks like a corporation logo. The joke is that the game was developed by EA Games, and the logo is their earlier logo.
- The Sims 2 has an in-universe game console named the Maxis™ Game Simulator, so named for the game's creators, Maxis.
- In Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Sanzaru Games' monkey head logo makes several appearances throughout the game, ranging from an insignia on Sly's backpack, to an unlockable Paraglider reskin, to the brand of a collectible branding iron treasure.
- Some of the courses in Snowboard Kids have banners with the names of series producers Atlus and Racjin on them; Big Snowman, for example, has them both right at the finish line.
- Sonic Adventure 2 contains many advertisements in the first level of the Hero story, City Escape; among them is one with Sonic Team's logo and website URL.
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has the Race of Ages track and the AGES vehicle, both nodding to Sega and one of their old tag lines for the Sega Genesis: "To be this good takes AGES. To be this good takes SEGA."
- SSX 3 has several appearances of the logo of its developers EA Sports BIG, such as on the front of every winners' podium, and on banners attached between the upper halfpipes in Perpendiculous.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Bros. Special, developed by Hudson Soft, has the bee that serves as the company's mascot appear in World 1-1 as a collectible item, which awards 8000 points.
- Several Mario Kart titles feature advertisements for Nintendo on tracks, particularly in stadiums that make sense to have advertisements in them. Mario Kart 64's renditions of Luigi Circuit and Mario Circuit and the Luigi Circuit in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! are but a handful of examples.
- The Mario Party 4 minigame "GOOOOOOOAL!!" is set in a soccer stadium. There are advertisements bearing logos on both sides of the stadium wall behind the net: the left side has Mario Party developers Hudson Soft, while the right side has Mario creators Nintendo. Nintendo's logo also changes between regions — blue in the Japanese version of the game, red elsewhere.
- Luigi's Mansion 3: Floor 11 of The Last Resort has three ghosts as the boss. In many languages, their names start with the same letters as the game's developers, Next Level Games — among others, they're Nikki, Lindsey, and Ginny in English and French; Nova, Luz, and Gala in Spanish; and Nina, Loes and Guusje in Dutch.
- Super Mario Bros. Special, developed by Hudson Soft, has the bee that serves as the company's mascot appear in World 1-1 as a collectible item
- Super Monkey Ball:
- The first game has a stage that's the logo of Sega, laid out horizontally so that your monkey rolls around on the "front" of the letters.
- 2 has a level where the website URL for Amusement Vision, the division of Sega that produced the series, is on a wall that pops out and can push you off the level.
- Super Smash Bros. Melee: Oddly, the texture for Roy's sword◊ has HAL LABRATORY.INC [sic] written on it.
- Among the many documents in The Talos Principle, one of them, Progress rep3.eml, is an email detailing the creation of the simulation that makes up the game you're playing (out-of-universe). Part of the email has been corrupted, but if you translate the hex code making up the corruption, it reads that the simulation is built on "the Serious Engine 7.5, which Croteam have kindly made available to us". Croteam is, of course, the company that made The Talos Principle.
- Round 29 of Tank Force has red walls in the center that are made to resemble Namco's logo.
- In the first Tony Hawk's Underground, the Slam City Jam stadium has banners with the logo of Neversoft, the game's developers, among the various other real-life companies adorning the walls.
- Tower of Fantasy: Hotta Studio's logo is usually splashed on screens around Aesperia. They also have an in-universe version of their studio located in Mirroria City beside the Oasis Club, and the player character can join them as a temporary worker helping the overworked employees in designing boss monsters before the deadline.
- Unreal Tournament: The ceiling of the team flag bases in the map CTF-Orbital, from the Game of The Year Edition and the DE Bonus Pack features the logo of Digital Extremes.
- Valis III has three different publisher-specific cameos in the same game. The first boss fight in the game is done against the backdrop of a neon sign bearing a logo. In the TurboGrafx-16 version, it's NEC; in the later Nintendo Switch compilation, the same sign is editted to read Edia Smart Media Company; finally, in the Sega Genesis version, it's "Reno", short for Renovation, Telenet Japan's NA publishing arm.
- The Tri-Emblem is found in many of tri-Ace's games, such as Valkyrie Profile and the Star Ocean series. It's shaped like their logo and is usually the most powerful accessory in the game.
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: A non-sequitur in the Dialogue Tree near the endgame lets you ask your ally Mercurio about Troika Games, the developer. Mercurio name-drops the founders and implies that they might soon be Killed to Uphold the Masquerade.
- In Warframe, you can find the logo of Digital Extremes hidden in each friendly town you can visit, which you can interact with to show an amateur-styled staff roll.
- Wii Sports: Nintendo logos are displayed on advertisements and decorations around the various sporting arenas.
- Three for PlatinumGames in The Wonderful 101:
- Each non-boss level has five Platinum Coins which have Platinum's logo on them. Find all five and you'll get an item.
- The supercomputer that controls the forcefield protecting Earth, Mother Platinum, is stylized after the star in Platinum's logo.
- Finally, after completing the game, a special Unite Morph called Platinum Forever is unlocked, which, when used, turns the team into Platinum's logo and fires a giant beam at the foes.
- The Yakuza series allows you to go to Sega-owned arcades and play classic titles like OutRun, Virtua Fighter, and even Sonic the Fighters.
- In Yoshi's Story, the levels "Jelly Pipe" and "Torrential Maze" have newspaper clippings making up the background. In addition to the several Company Cross References that they contain, such as the names of Wario, Zelda, and Pikachu, you can also spot Nintendo's name in them.
- In the DSi version of Zuma's Revenge!, PopCap Games' logo appears at the very bottom of the Achievements menu in the Tiki Temple.
Web Videos
- Epic Rap Battles of History: Near the end of "Jim Henson vs. Stan Lee," Walt Disney, representing the Disney brand, pops up to do a verse bragging about how much his company owns, including the ERBOH series itself. When Disney shows Henson and Lee his "empire of joy," one of the logos depicted is that of Maker Studios, the Disney-owned subsidiary that produced ERBOH at the time, with the ERBOH logo right below it.
Disney: I'm owning this battle! In fact, I own this whole series!
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Shippening" is about Sarah finding a magic notebook that makes any stories written into it become a reality, and using it to ship everyone in Elmore with each other. Said notebook has the logo of the show's production company and broadcast channel, Cartoon Network, on the front cover in gold, implying it's used to write episodes of the show.
- American Dad!: "Blagsnarst: A Love Story", the final episode to air on Fox Network before the show moved to TBS, ends with Stan reading aloud from a book labelled "American Dad! on Fox" and then putting the book on a shelf once he's finished.
- Animaniacs centers on Warner Bros. characters who live/work on the studio lot; the main characters Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner regularly introduce themselves as the Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister).
- Even putting its numerous fourth wall breaks aside, Big Mouth often references its host service Netflix. Sometimes it's in a positive context (like in "Pillow Talk," when Nick sobs over his parents grounding him from watching Netflix), sometimes it's more negative (like in "How To Have an Orgasm" when Maury makes fun of the 13 Reasons Why backlash), and sometimes it's a mix of both (Nick gushing about Netflix to Gina in "The Shame Wizard," only for the scene to cut out when he offers to share his password).
- In the final episode of the Netflix show BoJack Horseman, a newspaper cover is briefly shown reviewing a show on "Nextflix" that has "too many giraffe jokes." May also double as Self-Deprecation about BoJack frequently using animal puns for comedy.
- In the Chowder episode "Gazpacho Stands Up", Cartoon Network's channel logo is acknowledged in-universe when Gazpacho wipes Chowder's handwriting off the screen. Chowder asks if he can get the logo off of the screen too, only for Gazpacho to point at it◊ and say that it doesn't come off; the channel's at-the-time logo was actually drawn into the scene for this joke.
- Craig of the Creek: In the Musical Episode "In the Key of the Creek", during the song "The Creek is Everywhere", one of the real-life photos that flashes by in the background is one of Cartoon Network's headquarters in Burbank.
- In the Paramount-produced show Duckman, the episode "Inherit the Judgement: The Dope's Trial" has Duckman reveal that he won his court case because a higher power was on his side. The camera pans to an animated Paramount logo, complete with fanfare. It can be seen here.
- Family Guy: Frequent references are made to the network the show used to air on, Fox, with the characters mentioning Fox's influence on the show and even having Fox executives and employees occasionally make appearances in the series. One such example, used as a Take That!, is Peter bringing up Fox canceling their show before rattling off a list of nearly three dozen other shows that Fox Network ran and also canceled before un-canceling Family Guy.
- Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: A minor Running Gag is that whenever conglomerates are mentioned, a small business sign is displayed with the line "An AOL Time Warner Co".
- Looney Tunes: One of the franchise's hallmarks is that the characters know what studio they work for.
- Mr. Bean: The Animated Series: In "Wanted", shortly after Mr. Bean incorrectly gets sent to jail (due to a similar-looking escaped convict who takes refuge in Bean's flat), one inmate mentions that he really wants to get sent to Varga. Varga is the animation studio that provides the overseas animation for the first season.
- My Dad the Bounty Hunter: In the second episode, Grandma falls asleep while watching Netflix, the streamer that produces the show.
- OK K.O! Let's Be Heroes: The titular character keeps his Hero cards in a binder with the sticker of the Cartoon Network logo.
- An episode of The Proud Family does this with a fly, using the logo for Jambalaya Studio.
- In the Rugrats episode "Reptar 2010", Reptar is seen destroying a building labeled Viacom, the company who made Rugrats.
- The Simpsons pokes fun at the FOX network quite frequently, with examples such as Homer having an Oh, Crap! reaction after accidentally investing in FOX's stocks, or Krusty saying that they're "known for taking chances on crap!". One of the more innocuous jokes involves the family living in the outlands and watching a literal fox sleeping on a rock. Another jab at Fox in the episode When You Dish Upon A Star wound up predicting Fox's sale to Disney decades before it happened, with the Fox logo being labeled "A Division of Walt Disney Co".
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III", the International Justice League of Super Acquaintances is introduced as "a subsidiary of Viacom"; Viacom being the company that owns Nickelodeon.
- One episode of Steven Universe has Steven and Greg stop by the animation studio in Korea where the show is made. When Greg catches sight of his own model sheet, complete with the clothes he’s currently wearing, he hurriedly ushers Steven away.
