About the Simpsons using trademarks in it show?

Question

I would like to know if someone could tell me if the producers of the Simpsons show pay the rights to use famous people's names, and also the names and everything else from things like magazzines, restaurants, etc. I've seen that in some cases, they use a different name, instead of the real one, when mentioning something, for example, there's an episode where Homer reads Reader's Digest, but they used a different name for the mag; do you know why? Why didn't the just used the original name? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

They are able to get away with this because they have a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode. They say "celebrity voices are impersonated...badly..." etc.

Sandy

Answer 2

the simpsons is the longest running sit com in television history. the show has had more celeb guest appearances than any other show in history. furthermore the simpsons are the most recognized t.v. family in the world . i would think it probably costs a pretty penny to have your co. logo on the show. these are refered to as sponsers . they do it in every thing (t.v. , movies , even some music videos ) this is how they help fund the project . so i would guess that the false logos you see are either visual jokes or co. to proud to pay .

Answer 3

Well I'm sure those companies who have their products on the show have gone to them and paid them to have the product placement for advertising. If you compare this to a regular Japanese anime, you find that the anime will use product names to make the world they are recreating reflect the real world, to add that extra dimension of reality. Its fun to catch the mispelled brand names in anime ex. Somy instead of Sony.