In this article by global brands we mean the names of companies, goods and services well-known all over the world (Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Disneyland etc.). This popularity helps such names get into the linguistic consciousness of many nations. Having conducted a thorough analysis of global brands’ usage in Russian post-Soviet mass media, we have found out that they often develop figurative attitudinal meanings and lose onomastic status in some contexts. In time global brands turn into the vivid metaphors which depict various aspects of Russian life. Semantic transformations of these names demonstrate the fluctuations of Russian value system which have been registered in recent 25 years.