Law & Order episodes are often advertised as being "ripped from the headlines." Many people mistake this to mean that they are based on actual events. In reality, the slogan refers to the franchise's practice of conceiving stories that are partially inspired by recent headlines. However, with few exceptions, only a fairly small portion of the episode resembles the real incident or incidents that inspired it. There might be a few scenes that resemble a well-known headline, while the majority of the episode goes in a different direction, or there could be one character that is based on a famous individual, but the circumstances the person encounters are largely fictional.