TDS-432C: Branded (DM TDS)

Prada pulls racist trinkets. Netflix airs transphobic special. Cannes awards gender-biased ads. What do these headlines tell us? Brands are every bit as social as they are commercial. Viewed through the lens of identity, brands hold the power to exploit, marginalize, and even create social identities. Similarly, brands play a vital-and sometimes violent-role in defining the "other," blurring the line between profit and politics. In this studio, students learn how to read brands as belief systems that inscribe social codes. Lecture content and course readings draw on the fields of psychology, political theory, brand strategy, and more to underscore how brands like Prada, Netflix, Cannes (and more) affect race, gender, and class relations, among myriad other sociopolitical categories. Student teams translate course learnings into a brand identity system of their making that resists negative social stereotypes. They may also find some new identities of their own in the process. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation.