This slightly odd poll was suggested by 8-3. You know how real life brands are used in stories because it adds realism (or advertising dollars)? Sometimes the author alters the name so that they won't get sued for using it. In those instances, what should the translator do about it?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Opinion about manipulation techniques in manga (mind control, hypnosis, memory manipulation, puppetry, possession, drugs, etc)
Choices:
Come on, fight it! Don't let them control you!!! - votes: 745 (18.4%)
Love reading about it - votes: 638 (15.8%)
Mwahaha just one word and s/he'll betray them all - votes: 249 (6.2%)
Stupid and/or not realistic - votes: 460 (11.4%)
Just another tool in the toolbox - votes: 1577 (39%)
Very disturbing - votes: 376 (9.3%)
There were 4045 total votes.
The poll ended: May 19th 2018

Seems like most people are fine with having it as content in a series

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Definitely leave it as the author wrote; it's much funnier that way, and some of them are pretty creative.

Leave it as the author wrote it. Some of these are jokes after all and you can uses a trademarked phrase as long as you don´t use the trademarked font and logo too.

Batman is for example regally mentioned by Marvel as an in-universe fictional character:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/60/57/04/6057041b332f2b7c32cc3d1229742cb1.jpg
https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aGVoP7Z_700b.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/53/0d/d7530dc6c585a3ff06637d39a1641d57.jpg

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Leave it as the author wrote it (i.e., Poc*y).
A good translator mustn't alter it. If altered, then it's not categorized translation anymore, it's becomes Rewrite.

[color=red]@lambchopsil[/color] - A micro correction btw. ' but the author blanked it [color=red]our[/color] or altered it. '. [color=red]our[/color] > [color=green]out[/color]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ERg8slD.gif[/img
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HphHlPh.gif[/img]
Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ [color=red]MinatoAce[/color]

Poc*y seems dumb if that is the literal raw
don't authors write Pawky or Pooky anyways

** censorship is for swears/vulgarity to most people
maybe that can be an in-joke for translators to make a t-shirt that says
hey ladies, I love Poc*y

Depends on the usage - if there is any indication that it is done for more than trademark avoidance, leave it as author wrote it. Otherwise - change.

Quote from MinatoAce

[color=red]@lambchopsil[/color] - A micro correction btw. ' but the author blanked it [color=red]our[/color] or altered it. '. [color=red]our[/color] > [color=green]out[/color]

Fixed

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Leave as-is the ones that sound like knock-off brand names or that need the censorship for a gag. Otherwise, change it to the actual name.

Leave it as the author wrote it, BUT add a translator's note explaining the background & connotations or what a native-language reader of the original version would understand and infer from it.

I have to say that I loved how Nightow-sensei used "Famebook" for "Facebook" at the end of the last story ("Bratatat Mom") of v. 9 of Blood Blockade Battlefront.