Event overview
Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University) discusses the branding of social justice and the complex relationship between branding, activism, social media, and pop culture today
Corporate brands are an unavoidable presence in today’s political culture. As our social media feeds and popular culture insist on the role of brands in our collective life, companies have increasingly shifted from the more constrained frameworks of ‘corporate social responsibility’ to a more full-throated affirmation of their ‘woke’ credentials, mediating new modes of citizenship, participation and social change. How are we to understand and respond to this intensification of brands as social actors?
In this event, Dr Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University) will explore the branding of social justice, and the complicated relationship between branding, activism, social media, and pop culture. Drawing on her new book Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture (University of California Press) Dr Sobande will engage with a range of materials and media – from brand campaigns and television to exhibitions and historical archives - across international contexts, to develop a critical account of the ways brands seek to shape political life, and their relationship to us all.
This event is brought to you by the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy. Dr Sobande will be joined in conversation by Dr Jamie Matthews, lecturer in sociology, co-director of the Centre and programme convenor of MA Brands, Communication and Culture.
Speaker bio
Dr Francesca Sobande is a senior lecturer in digital media studies at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University. She is author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19 (SAGE, 2022). Francesca is also co-author of Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (Bloomsbury, 2022). Her latest book Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture was published by University of California Press in January 2024.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb 2024 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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