Branding The New Black
Andre Pinard works for a advertising and brand agency that markets products historically associated with white, upper class consumers to the black urban market.
Andre PInard, in black, in a still from the video.
Andre V. Pinard is a friend and a neighbor. We met in South Africa on a summer program of The New School in 2001 (he was a graduate student in sociology) and then we reconnected later that year in Brooklyn, New York. His mother immigrated from Haiti and Andre grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan.
We collaborated on a book chapter about the online community created by OkayPlayer and Andre was one of the interlocutors for a book about global hip hop music culture, “Where you’re at: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet.” These days, he works for Alloy ACCESS, which describes itself as “… the nation’s preeminent agency for global brands and organizations looking to understand and effectively reach multicultural millennials.” ACCESS’s areas of expertise “… are African American, Hispanic and Urban-minded millennials.” Andre recently sent me this video on his idea of “The New Black.”
For background, also read Andre’s article “Beacons of Black History in the Making.” Robert Bland’s essay at Liberator Magazine: “The Rise and Inevitable Liberation of the Black Creative Class“–also fits this category.
