1) Multiple brands for one producer: something bad happens, we cut the brand loose, move the staff who caused the problem elsewhere, or replace them, nobody knows. If it's really bad the mother co has enough money to place everything on the brand, with PR. The financial news will know it's P&G or Nestle or whatever, people on the street will see "Something Crunch is unhealthy and is discontinued".

2) Unknown holding company: yes, people can have general knowledge and to a degree it's their own fault for not knowing. But it also isn't, nobody has time to read about what thousands of brands are out there.

> I think problems often happen when the big corporate owners sell to private equity who are more often interested in boosting short term earnings.

Absolutely. I remember going to Ed's Diner here in the UK. They made a great burger in SoHo before I left the country for a few years. When I came back, they'd expanded across the country, which was a bit surprising to me, but I went in to eat there because of my previous experience. I took one bite, it was terrible, and I immediately told my wife "this tastes like private equity". I go on google, guess what, it was indeed bought by PE and they'd totally changed the burger. This is a form of lying to people that should not be tolerated but of course is a grey zone because it not easy to define when you've changed the burger so much that you can't call it the same thing.