We want to hear about how a household name brand played a pivotal role in your life

• How have big-name brands shaped your life? Maybe you spent a formative summer driving the Oscar Mayer "Wienermobile" when you were in college, or maybe as a high schooler you pretended to smoke a Marlboro cigarette behind the gym to seem cool.
• In an upcoming episode of our "Brought to you by..." podcast, we're highlighting stories from listeners about how your relationships with household name brands helped you come of age or marked rites of passage.
• If you have a story to share, call and leave a message at (646) 768-4777, or record a short voice memo and send it to btyb@businessinsider.com with "Product Misplacement" in the subject line.

If you listen to our "Brought to you by..." podcast, you know we have a segment called "Product Misplacement," where listeners tell us how big-name brands have shaped their lives in unexpected ways — from forbidden Oreos to the transformative power of Champion sweatpants.

In our upcoming season, we're planning a special "Product Misplacement" episode, and we'd love to hear your stories.

The theme is "Rite of Passage." Tell us about a time you discovered a brand that made you feel grown-up or that you used to pretend you were older than you actually were. What moments marked your entrance to adulthood, and how did a brand shape those stories?

Maybe you snuck off to the mall and got your ears pierced at Claire's without your parents' permission. Or you and your Dad drove the family Volkswagen across the country when you moved away to college. Or you made the heart-wrenching decision to sell your Topps baseball-card collection to pay for your first car or your senior-prom dress.

We want to hear about it. Submit your story by calling (646) 768-4777 and leaving a message, or email a brief voice-memo recording to btyb@businessinsider.com. If your story is selected, we may work with you to adapt it for an episode of the podcast.

One note about your pitch: The best "Product Misplacement" stories are real stories rather than portraits of a time in your life. Tell us what happened and how things changed for you because of this moment — even in a small way. We can't wait to hear about it.