Until the 90s, the media provided an escape from reality by transporting consumers to the fictional universe of sitcoms, soap operas and series.
For nearly 50 years with over 100 million Crock-Pots sold, we have never received any consumer complaints similar to the fictional events portrayed in last night's episode.
A group of hackers go after consumer data held by the fictional conglomerate E Corp in the show's pilot, and, a few weeks later, the cheating site Ashley Madison was hacked, spilling user data onto the Internet.
The scenarios were distilled into vignettes, forms of creative fictional prototypes to explore the possible environment for arts consumers, producers and distributors.
A majority of the funds, $25,000, came from graphic designer Pete Hottelet of San Francisco's Omni Consumer Products, a firm named after the fictional corporation that builds RoboCop in Verhoeven's cult classic.
Should a reader pick up the nonfictional "Trading Up" in error, he or she will not be disappointed: the book, which draws on interviews with covetous consumers, provides an even juicier read than its fictional counterpart.
A spokesman for Sony Pictures, Steve Elzer, said: "We believe consumers understand that the advertising is promoting a fictional film".
At one point, the fictional Houellebecq tells Martin that in his "life as a consumer" he has known only three "perfect products": a pair of Paraboot shoes; a Canon computer-printer hybrid; and a "Camel Legend" parka coat.
"Jennifer" isn't real she's a fictional customer conjured up after six months of market research, including the infiltration of consumers' homes by packs of snooping Ford engineers.
You being the consumer about to buy "X: The Last Hope" is of course a fictional scenario!
