John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer, and Ed Lebar, economic consultant, at Young & Rubicam want you to know that consumers have been "falling out of love" with brands. Really? Do you really need anymore bad news on this Monday morning? Apparently, you do. Their new book, "Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis In Brand Value And How To Avoid It" is a study in consumer perception and valuation of brands.

"While Wall Street has been bidding brand values ever higher, consumer perceptions toward brands are substantially eroding... Financial markets think brands are worth more than the consumers who buy them," the authors said in the LA Times.

Gerzema and Lebar have coined a new term called the "brand bubble," which they say is bursting as we speak. It's apparently a $4 trillion bubble, too. As the financial markets have been driven into the ground, so goes brands. The thesis is that there are only a handful of great brands left, which people trust and respect and love. The rest of the brands? They're fucked.

"These stellar brands are becoming fewer in number... We found an increasingly smaller number of brands accounting for a disproportionate share of the [stock market] value being created."

Oh! And there's another new term - "brand energy" - which makes it debut in the their book. They claim to have discovered a new "creative life force." Uh-hunh. What "brand energy" really means is the principle that brands need to continuously innovate and focus on forging a good rep with consumers.

Whew. Okay. That's all shit you knew just packaged under the auspice of fear. Okay. Okay. The world is still turning.

More: Advertising Terrorism: Honda Has Got To Love It