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Should the world "brands" be capitalized in the following sentence? If so why?

We give Brands access to our database of 100 users.

"Brands" refers to advertisers such as Coca Cola and Pepsi.

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It depends on what Brands refers to. –  J.R. Jun 15 '12 at 15:54
I've updated my question with what Brands refers to. –  David Jun 15 '12 at 17:45
Definitely lower case then. But, you could have been talking about this guy; there was no way to tell for sure in your original question. –  J.R. Jun 16 '12 at 23:32
@J.R. Yes, or given our catastrophe of an IP legal system, someone might have trademarked the brand name brands inside of the domain of heritage hams, but only if served with green eggs, and with no fork. Good point, in any case. –  shinyspoongod Jun 17 '12 at 4:51
@shinyspoongod: As I like to say, context is everything. At first thought, giving Mr. Brands (the author) access to the database may sound silly. But, there are only 100 users! What if those "users" happen to be book publishers? Suddenly the capitalized form becomes plausible. We give Brands access to our database of 100 users. We give Tom Clancy access as well. –  J.R. Jun 17 '12 at 8:53

1 Answer 1

up vote 7 down vote accepted

No, it should not be capitalized unless it is a proper noun.

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Thank you. The link really helped. –  David Jun 21 '12 at 4:05

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