Millward Brown Optimor, a “global brand strategy” analyst firm, just stepped into a heaping pile of fanboy doodoo with its latest rankings of the 100 most valuable brands in the world, pegging Sony at 94th. Nintendo is 32nd, Microsoft fourth.

That’s behind Marlboro (at No. 7) Budweiser (No. 38) and Colgate (No. 47). Considering that Microsoft and Sony make more than games and games consoles, Millward Brown decided to make things worse and break out brand rankings by platform and it doesn’t get any better.

Nintendo has the No. 1 and 2 positions with the Wii and DS respectively ($9.9 billion and $7.8 billion “estimated value,” respectively), followed by the Xbox 360 ($4.5 billion) and then the PlayStation 3 ($426 million) PSP ($155 million) and PS2 ($49 million).

Wondering what “estimated value” means? Here’s their words, not mine “The dollar value of each brand in the ranking is the sum of all future earnings that brand is forecast to generate, discounted to a present day value.”

True, but I don’t brush my teeth with a DualShock or smoke MLB 10 The Show. Well, not literally. Get the full report here. pdf

Wii Named Top Gaming Console Brand Game Politics

American brand cigarettes have up to three times the carcinogens

Phillip morris to start selling marijuana under marlboro m brand? – international business times

By Lea Yu on June 1, 2010

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Compared to smokers of foreign brand cigarettes, people who smoke American cigarettes are exposed to as much as triple the amount of certain carcinogens, according to a small study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today.

The study surveyed 126 smokers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, and is the first to compare smokers from different countries, according to HealthDayNews. By analyzing mouth level exposures as well as urine samples, CDC researchers found significantly larger traces of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in American brand cigarette smokers and their cigarette butts. TSNAs derive from nicotine and are the main cancer causing compounds in tobacco.

We know that cigarettes from around the world vary in their ingredients and the way they are produced, said deputy director for science at CDC s National Center for Environmental Health Jim Pirkle in a press statement. All of these cigarettes contain harmful levels of carcinogens, but these findings show that amounts of tobacco specific nitrosamines differ from country to country, and U.S. brands are the highest in the study.

Researchers attributed the variations to differences in the location of production as well as the curing and blending process, but warned that these distinctions do not signify that certain brands are safer than others. The other three countries use a bright blend of tobacco that is flue cured, which gives them lower levels of TSNAs, compared to American tobacco.

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