Who cares about branding?

To counterweight the post below we have to ask: how trivial is this? Under the threat of world financial collapse, why pay any attention to the print on an orange juice carton?

Three reasons why we might care:

1. Brands are celebrities of a sort in our culture, and watching their ups and downs can have amusement value
2. Brands demonstrate human behavior (What do people care about? What do they believe in? What motivates them to act?)
3. Brands can drive business activity: surely more Tropicana will be sold this week...