Gibson doesn't use brand names in his fiction as a way of promoting products (except maybe in the case of the Buzz Rickson Flight Jacket). Instead, I think he (correctly) sees the brand name as one of the key means by which we can visualize those enormously complex global supply chains upon which our lives depend.

Think about scenes like the one in "Pattern Recognition" where Cayce is asked to approve a prospective sneaker logo and for a moment envisions the assembly line of Asian workers who would produce the sneakers onto which the sperm-like logo would be emblazoned--should she approve it.

Brands are part of our world--forms of intellectual property worth billions of dollars in their own right. And their value isn't (only) about the quality of the products they're associated with but also related to their cultural meanings and history. There is a crazy amount of marketing and branding research dedicated to understanding how brands accrue cultural value. Most of it is crap.

Frankly, Gibson is far more insightful about how these things work than even the very best marketing researcher.