Flutterby™! : Spam as Economic Weapon?

I have one unfiltered emailed account, and lately it's been getting a lot of spam with reputable company names in the subject line. For example: Pimsleur and Ford - with links and from addresses from the usual spam weirdness and links to "who knows what" (but we can guess).

It just occurred to me that these brands used are specific. For example 2014 Ford, but not GM, Toyota, etc.. I've got two observations that are not necessarily related, and NO facts:

• The brands used seem to be specific enough to me that they might be sourced from "big data" about my preferences and online shopping.
• The brands are being effectively "de-valued" because of the prevalence in my spam.

Item 2 is particularly interesting to me... would it be of economic value for a company like "Wendy's" to pay a spammer to use the brand "McDonalds" in their spam campaigns?

Again, no data.. just musing.