“We give brands access to…” or “We give Brands access to…”

Question

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.

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. 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: 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.

JeffSahol · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-15 15:18:22Z

up vote 7 down vote accepted

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

answered Jun 15 '12 at 15:18

JeffSahol
13.2k1651

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

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