"Compared with their grandparents, today's young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology," notes Hope College psychologist David G. Myers, PhD, author of the article, which appeared in the American Psychologist (Vol. 55, No. 1). "Our becoming much better off over the last four decades has not been accompanied by one iota of increased subjective well-being." These findings emerge at a time when the consumer culture has reached a fever pitch, comments Myers, also the author of "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty" (Yale University Press, 2000).

Disney's Magic Kingdom. Billed as the Happiest Place on Earth. But how safe are you -- and more importantly, your children -- at Disney's empire in Florida? All theme parks are magnets for pedophiles. But our four -- month investigation found that Disney's hiring practices actually allowed the employment of convicted pedophiles at its parks and resorts. And law-enforcement sources we talked to say Disney is less willing to cooperate with authorities battling the problem than are other parks. Is Disney placing its youngest and most exploitable customers -- your children -- at unnecessary risk? Stay tuned for our ace investigative reporter's troubling report.... Though this isn't a real promo, this was a real story. But it never ran. It didn't because this was an ABC News story, and since 1996, ABC has been a relatively small, financially struggling division of the mammoth Walt Disney Company. David Westin, president of ABC News, killed the story after a bitter clash with the journalists who had nearly completed work on it -- igniting suspicions that the story would have been told, but for Disney's ownership of the network. Especially troublesome is how ABC went about evaluating and killing the story. The whole mess validates the viewing public's worst fears about conglomerate ownership of major news outlets. In this case, an otherwise powerful, prestigious news operation has shown itself incapable of covering -- or unwilling to cover -- a major cultural and economic force in American life.

From childhood, we learn to associate symbols and icons with specific feelings or ideas. This is the same with branding, as logos come to embody the brand's personality in the mind of the consumer. Brands take tremendous effort in creating emotional connections with the consumer, and logos are just one of the many ways they can communicate who they are. Some logos are so prevalent in society that they are instantly recognizable.Below is a collection of 30 of the most recognizable logos. Some have seen multiple generations, and some are very new, but all are easily recognizable and might even evoke some feelings toward that brand.

Below is a look at the top six media conglomerates in the United States: Time WarnerGeneral ElectricComcastNational AmusementsNews CorporationThe Walt Disney CompanyThis is not even close to an exhaustive list and nearly all the large media companies have intertwining relationships with each other. Advertising Age magazine constructed an excellent Media Family Tree (pdf file) which shows how these companies cross-pollinate their profits.

Ads are showing up everywhere. And creeping commercialism is prompting a growing debate about whether "ad pollution" is invading too much of consumers' space.

Great site on media conglomerations and ownership of the media

Comcast/NBC Media Holdings

Chart of the big 6 media conglomerates