Yeah, there are always a number of solutions to any problem. He could also make a category called "Featured Brands" with no products. Then he could make his chosen brands subcategories under this and the logo and description of each of them would appear in menu flyouts from the main link. The beauty of this would be he could also put specific or featured products under the brands as sub-subcategories. That way the menu would build itself automatically and to my thinking it 'belongs' with the product category menu.

BTW Love the new avatar. The kids and the dog are cute.