Seriously, Nokia?....Budweiser? In a society that's abandoned currency-based economics, somehow hasn't abandoned useless brands, and they survived WWIII, Eugenics Wars, and pretty much the entire Star Trek 21st century shitfest?
And Slusho....does Abrams have to whore his stupid fake brand in everything he makes??
Um, how old was the car? Looked pretty dang old to me and it was probably retrofitted with the phone, which by the way looked way older than all the other technology. So we can't crank that up to the fact that it was a remanent of old technology?
And also,
How are you supposed to go out and order a drink?!?! Are you going to go out and just say "I want a beer"? We can't have a variety in the future? How do you identify taste?
There has to be a way to set things apart because you can't just have one of something. What happens to Sam Adams, Coors, Miller, Hieniken, Newcastle, Guinness? While money doesn't exist, taste does and branding is the way you identify the taste you desire. The only other way would be to go up to the bartender and say "I'd like a beer: light, with mild hops, add a hint of carmel, and give it an old classic American taste." That's efficient....
Example: Did Sisko's father have a name to his store? How bout that it did! 'Sisko's.' That's branding. I'm sure their are other examples where we see branding off of the Starships.
Do people just walk down the street and hop into this "Restaurant?" Nope they remember the brand and what it tasted like because it is an efficient way of identifying feelings and taste into a simple word.
Just because it is there doesn't mean it is corporate or commercial. It is there because it is a means of identification.
Sure, certain things like Nokia are probably gone, but there are certain products that have to have some sort of identification. I'd bet Kleenex is no longer Kleenex and the operating system is no longer Microsoft, but really, come on.
