It’s the first month of football season, and you know what that means! That’s right, Business Week and Interbrand’s annual list of “Best Global Brands” – like Christmas morning for brand geeks. This is a ranking of the top 100 global brands by dollar value, determined through as objective a process as you could use to calculate a brand’s worth.

Before I share my thoughts on the list, a quick football metaphor (non-football fans bear with me on this – it will all make sense shortly).

In football, when a team gets a big lead in a game, they often start playing what’s called a “prevent” defense. This means they play very conservatively, giving up small chunks of yards but not allowing the other team to score quickly with a big play. The idea is, “Just bide our time until the clock runs out.” They stop playing to win and they start playing to not lose.

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