During the usual Sunday night routine—if I stay up late enough, Monday will never come!—I saw a George Carlin show from 1977.

In two lines, 30 years old, he made me realize how many hours I have wasted listening to branding experts.

He said: You won't eat Goodyear pancakes and you don't want to drive on Aunt Jemima tires.

For veracity and usefulness, contrast Carlin with Procter & Gamble marketing chief James Stengel, on the same subject, in interview with Fortune.

Asked about the biggest trend in branding, Stengel said:

"The biggest thing going on with U.S. consumers is that they want to trust something. They want to be understood, they want to be respected, they want to be listened to. They don't want to be talked to. It's trust in the largest sense of the word. People really do care what's behind the brand, what's behind the business. They care about the values of a brand and the values of a company. We can never forget that. We can never be complacent about that."

In other words, you won't eat Goodyear pancakes.