John Tantillo names his top 5 brand winners and top 5 brand losers from 2009.

Winners:
1 - Lady Gaga
2 - Apple
3 - Hollywood
4 - David Letterman
5 - Sarah Palin

Losers:
1 - Ciibank
2 - American Politics
3 - Microsoft
4 - newspapers
5 - The Nobel Prize

We've just recently elected a Democrat as President. CNN's ratings are at the bottom of the pile. Fox News ratings are soaring, despite, or perhaps thanks to, snubbing of the network by the Obama Administration. John Tantillo points out branding lessons to be learned in all of this.

Brand expert John Tantillo applauds GM for listening to its customers and scrapping the Vuick, rather than following in the tradition of the build-it-and-they-will-come approach.

In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, brand expert John Tantillo comments on how the strong emotional reactions to the artist's death are a testament to the incredible strength of his personal brand: "You know a brand is strong when people would rather that none of the scandal had ever happened to it."