Left of Black Presents:  A Conversation with Steve Stoute

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 6:30 PM JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Please join us on the set of Left of Black in room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center for a live, streamed, conversation with Steve Stoute, author of the newly The Tanning of America – How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy and founder and chief creative officer of Translation Consultation + Brand Imaging.

When Fortune 500 companies need to reenergize or reinvent a lagging brand, they call Steve Stoute. In addition to marrying cultural icons with blue-chip marketers (Beyoncé for Tommy Hilfiger’s True Star fragrance, and Justin Timberlake for “Lovin’ It” at McDonald’s), Stoute has helped identify and activate a new generation of consumers. He traces how the “tanning” phenomenon raised a generation of black, Hispanic, white, and Asian consumers who have the same “mental complexion” based on shared experiences and values. 

This consumer is a mindset-not a race or age-that responds to shared values and experiences, rather than the increasingly irrelevant demographic boxes that have been used to a fault by corporate America. And Stoute believes there is a language gap that must be bridged in order to engage the most powerful market force in the history of commerce.

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Viewers can participate in this live-streamed event via Twitter using the hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.

Left of Black is hosted by Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal and recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University.