At the turn of the century, the most valuable brands in America were Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and IBM. When you think about it, Coca-Cola might have been at the top in the previous turn of the century. But things change fast these days. Watching this graph change over time might be boring in the first couple of years, but then some familiar tech companies get into the game, leap-frogging up the ladder at a breathtaking pace. Google joins the group in 2008, Apple in 2011, with Samsung, Amazon, and Facebook following. The music switches from bouncy to dramatic when the competition starts to get cutthroat. -via Boing Boing
People will argue about whether corporations turned us into IdiocracyLand or whether we did it to ourselves.
I duno, the other I get, I think corporations only gave "the rabble" exactly what they wanted.
I'm almost 40 years old and I've never purchased a pack of cigarettes. But people claim corporations and advertising controls us? All lies. :)