But as P.& G. has been rudely reminded, there is often a bond between a product and consumers; advertisers that risk breaking this bond do so at their peril.
But, as we were rudely reminded last October 19th, prosperity can be fleeting.
Last year's blackout - when we were rudely reminded that electricity is the lifeblood of our civilization - still holds the dubious honor as America's biggest blackout.
But my absorption will last only so long; there will come, as it must, the wistful moment when I'm rudely reminded of my urban reality.
Traders have been rudely reminded of how volatile options are.
Then they were rudely reminded of how far they still have to go to.
I recently served a Sancerre with a dish of linguine with basil, and was rudely reminded that it is not an all-purpose white wine.
But the turmoil in the financial system has rudely reminded us that we might want a vice-president who actually follows current events.
I encountered him on the Via Appia outside Tarentum the day I arrived back in Italy, and was rudely reminded of that fact.
First they got to cackle over the Northeast blackout, wherein tens of millions of denizens of the 21st century were rudely reminded of their slavish dependence upon this late-19th-century technology.