BrandSTOKE, like other four-year-olds, is developing greater self-control, demonstrating imagination and experimenting with independent decision-making.

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In celebration of BrandSTOKE’s four-year anniversary, here is a list of your favorite posts of 2012 as well as a few personal favorites:

12 most popular posts of 2012:

1. Scott the Scot from Scotts: Get it?
2. Sex, OTC drugs, and rock-and-roll
3. Proud sponsor of plagiarized taglines
4. Only 7 men in the world permitted to drink Jägermeister
5. In co-branding there is strength
6. Time for Swiss watches to strengthen their brand?
7. VW’s nightmare parking ads a dream of simplicity
8. Moleskine: An analog brand in a digital world
9. Branding’s dirty little secret: Not everyone cares
10. Oreo: A brand reminds us it is eternal
11. Finding the right co-branding partner
12. Twinkies: A brand-value case study in the oven

And 12 that deserve another look:

1. Trademarking color: It’s not black and white.
2. Ram Trucks suggests you ride a chopper instead
3. Is your brand threatened by its delivery system?
4. There goes the neighborhood brand
5. Brands with higher callings
6. Wax works, unless it’s Maker’s Mark’s
7. How to ambush Olympic sponsors
8. Is Apple losing its “coolness” factor?
9. Why brands can’t lie as politicians do
10. Interruptive marketing bad? Disruptive marketing good?
11. Affinity brands don’t “interrupt”
12. The parable of the blind men and lead-generation marketing