All Fictional Brands in the Grand Theft Auto Universe Explained (& What They Satirize)

The Grand Theft Auto franchise, despite its undeniable brashness and vulgarity, offers plenty of cutting cultural commentary. This isn’t exactly news: Grand Theft Auto has been effusively praised for its often hilarious and clever social observations, which contextualize and elevate the games’ more absurd and fantastical elements.

To be more specific, Grand Theft Auto has been, for many entries now, a biting critique of contemporary American society. The series regularly takes incisive shots at the bizarre cultural practices of the US, including the country’s obsession with guns, inconsistent attitude toward violence, and fixation on trivial matters. And there’s arguably nothing more American than big brands, towards which Rockstar directs a considerable amount of its satirical wrath, and will presumably continue to do so in GTA 6.

If you consider every business or named product in GTA a “brand,” then there are well over a thousand. For simplicity’s sake, the following list focuses solely on well-established, clearly defined products or chains in the GTA universe, specifically those that fit into broader industries.

GTA 5 Locations That Are Based On Real-Life

Like previous Grand Theft Auto games, Grand Theft Auto 5 contains locations that are based on actual real-world places.

Food and Dining in GTA

60 Diner
Benny’s Restaurant
Bishop’s Chicken
Broffles Waffles
Bite!
Burger Shot
Casey’s Diner
Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company
Chébs Eaterie
Cluckin’ Bell
Coconut Cafe
Drusilla’s
Dusche Gold
eCola
Fanny Crab’s
Hit ‘n’ Run Coffee
Kai Lee’s Hot Sauce Company
Les Bianco
Liquor Market
Logger Beer
The Mount Distilling Co.
Muscle Peach
Noodle Exchange
Orang-O-Tang
Pizza This…
Pißwasser
Rancid Dragon
Rockford Hill Reserve
R. S. & L. Bows
Rusty Brown’s Ring Donuts
Slice ‘N’ Dice Pizzeria
The Smokin’ Beef Grill
Snr. Buns
Sprunk
Steinway Beer Garden
The Sundae Post
Super Star Cafe
Up-n-Atom Burger
Viendemonte
Wigwam Burger
The Well Stacked Pizza Co.
Zebrabar
Üder Milkén

If you’re looking to make fun of the United States, food isn’t a bad place to start. The US regularly ranks in the top ten countries for obesity, for instance, and heart disease—the leading cause of death in the States—can be caused or exacerbated by unhealthy dietary habits. Still, fast-food chains like McDonald’s and high-sugar products like Coca-Cola are symbols of America’s wealth and economic dominance. In a word, they are inextricable from the US’s image. This is why Grand Theft Auto features brands like Sprunk (Sprite) and Bishop’s Chicken (Church’s Chicken). They are necessary parts of any quasi-US setting.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.

EasyMediumHardPermadeath

Rockstar apparently likes to hone in on the grotesque hedonism that accompanies America’s food obsession. For instance, the GTA 5 steakhouse Viendemonte loosely translates to “meat mountain” in French (viande = meat, monte = mountain), whereas the Chinese eatery Rancid Dragon in the first GTA may be a shot at Americans’ low standards for fast food. There’s also the iconic beer brand Pißwasser, which translates from German to “piss water,” a likely dig at American-favored beers like Budweiser, which aren’t exactly known for their rich flavor.

These brands don’t obviously correlate to real-world brands, but there are plenty that do. There’s Sprunk and Bishop’s Chicken, of course, but also Noodle Exchange (Noodles and Company), Cluckin’ Bell (KFC, Taco Bell), and Burger Shot (Burger King). Grand Theft Auto will also often parody regional eateries like the NYC-based Fatty Crab (Fanny Crab in Liberty City) and the west-coast burger chain In-N-Out (Up-N-Atom Burger in Los Santos).

GTA’s Automobiles, Seacraft, and Aircraft

Airgator Airboats
Albany
American Motors
Annis
Asstone
Beekers Garage & Parts
Benefactor
Big Mike’s
Bravado
Bollokan
Brute
Buckingham
Bürgerfahrzeug
Canis
Chariot
Cheval
CJD
Classique
Coil
Crest Kayaks
Declasse
Dewbauchee
Dinka
Dundreary
Duval’s Mobile Glass
Eberhard
Emperor
Enus
Eightballs Autoyard
Fasta
Fathom
Gallivanter
Grotti
HVY
Hijak
Imponte
Invetero
Jack Sheepe
JoBuilt
Jugular
Karin
Kraken Submersibles
Kunst
Lampadati
Liberty City Cycles
Liberty Chop Shop
Lure Predator
Maibatsu
Mammoth
Maxwell
MTL
NAG
Nagasaki
Nioka
Obey
Ocelot
Överflöd
PED Cycles
Penaud
Pegassi
Pfister
Principe
Progen
RUNE
Schyster
Shitsu
Speedophile
Stanley
Steel Horse
Toundra
Tri-Cycles
Truffade
Übermacht
Vapid
Vulcar
Vysser
Weeny
Western Company
Western Motorcycle Company
Willard
Zirconium

It goes without saying that cars are essential to the GTA franchise from a gameplay perspective, but they can also serve as a source of satirical commentary. You can tie just about every car brand in GTA back to a real-world counterpart if you try hard enough, but some especially on-the-nose parallels include agriculture machinery manufacturer Jack Sheepe (John Deere), electric vehicle brand Coil (Tesla), and Japanese consumer-grade carmaker Maibatsu (Mitsubishi).

GTA takes aim less at real-world car manufacturers and more at real-world car culture: people around the world, but especially in America and Europe, use cars as much as status symbols as forms of transportation. Of course, Rockstar doesn’t allow this practice to be dignified, conjuring names like Declasse (meaning low-class) for affordable luxury brands like Chevrolet, and Brute and Bravado for heavy trucks and muscle cars akin to those from Dodge and GMC. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of automotive brands that play on crass innuendo, like Pfister, Annis, Kunst, and Weeny. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what those are supposed to mean.

Retail in the Grand Theft Auto Series

24/7 Supermarket
Animal Ark
Ammu-Nation
The Bawdy Shop
Binco
Brawls
Bunch of Tools
Cheap Thrills
Checkout!
Digital Den
Discount Beauty Store
Gaulle
Helmut Schein
Hippie Lady
Hippy Shopper
Howlin’ Petes Biker Emporium
J’s T-Shirts
Jazz Mags
L.S. Eyeworks
Leftwood Sports
Liquor Market
Los Santos Office Supply Co
Modo
Nalgas Grandes Clothes
Old Codger Antiques
Pedal and Metal Cycles
Perseus
Pink Palms Beach Shop
Powertool Paradise
Quimbly & Flange
Santos Surfboards
Shafted Appliances
Spenders
Stonewall J’s
Suburban
Toy Corner
The Uphill Gardener Garden Center
Vinyl Countdown
Walk of Fame
White Widow
Yars Jewelry
You Tool
YoYoJo’s Records

This is perhaps the broadest category of brand in the GTA universe, as retailers support both world-building and gameplay, since players will often visit these locations for apparel or gear. One common subcategory is clothing retailers like Suburban, a likely play on Urban Outfitters, and Binco, a budget clothing store whose name appears to be a portmanteau of bin and company or corporation. This sort of aggressive, blatant honesty about product quality is typical of many fake GTA brands, which is perhaps a comment on Americans’ flippant, non-judicious consumerism. Other examples of this in the retail space include the jewelry shop Gaulle (gall), Shafted Appliances, and Cheap Thrills. And of course, who could forget about Ammu-Nation, the one-stop shop for gun-loving Americans.

GTA’s Recreation and Nightlife

The Big Shot Casino
The Bowled Spot
The Camel’s Toe
Cockatoos
Come-A-Lot
Diamond Sky
The Emerald Isle
The Four Dragons Casino
Honkers
Hornbills
Mad Donna’s
Misty’s
The Pig Pen
Woody’s Topless Bar

You can’t have a big city without a healthy dose of debauchery, which is where GTA‘s bars and nightclubs come into play. More than other brands in the franchise, these are more about poking fun at an industry than any specific company, although there are still some pretty obvious real-world parallels (e.g. Honkers instead of Hooters). There are also the casinos The Emerald Isle and The Four Dragons Casino, which may be plays on the overly glamorous, exotic names of US casinos.

Like with food in the GTA universe, Rockstar underscores American depravity with some hilariously on-the-nose names. There are the casinos Come-A-Lot and The Camel’s Toe, for instance, as well as strip clubs like The Pig Pen and Woody’s Topless Bar, whose titles would be considered absurd and embarrassing in real life.

Fashion Brands in Grand Theft Auto

Alphabetz
Anna Rex
Bull Emic
BOBO
Cadet
Double-P
Fourchette
Fruntalot
Gaunt
Hinterland
Kronos
Ponsonbys
ProLaps
Shodi

In the US, affordable, fast fashion is juxtaposed by exorbitantly priced designer labels, the latter of which seems to draw most of Rockstar’s satirical fire. Consider Ponsonbys, a high-end menswear brand that seems to be a play on “ponce,” a derogatory term for an effeminate man, or the ostentatious hip-hop label Fruntalot, whose name refers to “fronting,” or acting cooler than you really are. Women’s fashion attracts similar heat, with the brands Anna Rex, Bull Emic, and Gaunt all being obvious references to the eating disorder epidemic that designer labels have helped proliferate.

Those brands make fun of the fashion world at large, but there are some specific labels that appear to reference real-world counterparts, too. Take BOBO, which seems to be a spin on FUBU, or Hinterland, which fills the role of rugged outdoor brands like Patagonia and The North Face. Then there’s ProLaps, which is clearly inspired by the likes of Nike and Reebok. The name Prolaps is likely a reference to a certain medical condition that I won’t describe here. Let’s just say that there’s a GTA 5 Easter egg that reveals one of the brand’s slogans as “destroy the ring,” which tells you a lot about the brand name’s unpleasant inspiration.

Health, Wellness, and Beauty Brands in GTA

Betta Pharmaceuticals
Dollar Pills
Eugenics Incorporated
Facepalm Cosmetics
Fud’s Brazilian Waxing
Horn
Max Renda
Molar Flair Dentist
O’Sheas Barbers Shop
Pill Pharm
Pharaoh Cosmetics
Smoke On The Water
Talon Scout Nails
Tophes
Classic Nails

America’s enthusiasm for easy, fast products has been matched, especially in recent decades, by an obsession with health and wellness, as evidenced by infamous brands like goop and Theranos. Previous Grand Theft Auto games haven’t explored this subject too deeply, although in-universe companies like the absurdly named Eugenics Incorporated indicate that the industry is on Rockstar’s radar. Similarly, Dollar Pills and Pill Pharm jab at America’s highly privatized healthcare industry. Beauty brands mostly appear as small background jokes. For instance, Pharaoh Cosmetics is a surface-level play on stores like Sephora, while Max Renda appears to be a clever fourth-wall break, referencing the rendering process for graphics.

GTA’s Travel Brands

Adios Airlines
Aero Cubana
Air Biscuit
Air Emu
Air Herler
Air Rockstar
Air Sol
Allied Air
Autograph
Buccanair
Borgine Taxis
Cut ‘N’ Shut
Caipara Airways
Devin Weston Jet Charter
DMAir Rockstar
East Sky Airlines
Elitás Travel
Emerald Air
FlyUS
Haitan Air
JiffiRent
Juank Air
Los Santos Air
Mavis
McAdam Airways
MyFly
Plummet Airlines
San Fierro Air
Taylair
TJA Air
Tricolore
Touchdown Car Rentals
Vice City Air
VIP Charter Jets
White Line Airways
Yankee

I was quite surprised to discover just how many airlines and travel brands exist in the world of GTA, whose games almost always take place in a single city or state. These are, of course, satirizing the myriad travel companies in the real world, and names like Plummet Airlines are clear shots at the reliability of some of these companies. Other in-universe airlines present small Easter eggs, like DMAair Rockstar, which is an obvious reference to DMA Design, the former title of Rockstar North.

GTA’s Banking and Finance Brands

FLEECA
Gruppe Sechs
Jefferson Street Credit Union
Lee Finance
Lombank
Master B8tr
Penris
Pla$tic
PISN
Schlongberg Sachs
Total Bankers

There are a lot of individual banks in the Grand Theft Auto games, but only a few notable, global financial institutions. These facilitate some of GTA‘s more biting critiques of hypercapitalist society. For instance, major banking chain FLEECA derives its name from “fleece,” which means to con someone out of their money. Then there’s Gruppe Sechs and Schlongberg Sachs, which both appear to be making fun of Goldman Sachs, with PISN, Penris, and Master B8tr being further crude, sexualized spins on firms like MasterCard and VISA. Considering the role that these sorts of companies play in GTA‘s campaigns, often serving as direct victims of the player, this kind of juvenile disregard feels appropriate.

Gas and Petroleum Brands in Grand Theft Auto

AMCo. Petroleum Company
Amigas
Arrow Gasoline
Globe Oil
Going
K.A.C.C.
Limited Gasoline
The Mars Gas Corporation
Pharte Gas
RON
STD
Terroil
Tosser
Xero Gas
Xoomer

Like financial institutions, gas and petrol companies are easy targets for satire—they’re among the most hated companies in the world, after all. GTA‘s gasoline companies are inspired by the likes of BP, and Chevron, though Rockstar has opted for more critical, original names rather than direct homages to real-world counterparts. For instance, the companies Xero Gas, Limited Gasoline, and Going all appear to be references to the inherently finite nature of fossil fuels, while Terroil is a particularly direct disavowal of the West’s reign of “terror” for the sake of oil. Other names, like STD and Tosser, are more self-explanatory and straightforward, but no less effective.

Tobacco Brands in GTA

69 Brand
Athena
Cancer
Cardiaque
Chumash Chew
CoK
Debonaire
Estancia Cigars
Homies Sharp
La Tradicion Cubana Cigar Factory
No. 13 Cigarettes
Rattler Creek
Redwood Cigarettes
Yukon

Like airlines, GTA features a surprising number of tobacco brands, which play on the substance’s negative health effects as well as the tobacco industry’s insidious marketing practices. CoK, Redwood Cigarettes, and No. 13 Cigarettes appear to be parodies of L&M, Marlboro, and Lucky Strike, respectively, while Athena captures the broader spirit of real-world cigarette brands marketed specifically for women—a ridiculous notion if there ever was one. Cancer and Cardiaque are funny by virtue of their straightforwardness, contrasting the reality of tobacco brands, which strive to hide their carcinogenic nature. A personal favorite of mine is 69 Brand. The joke seems obvious at first, but a closer look at the logo reveals that the “69” image is actually the astrological sign for Cancer. Clever indeed.