The marketing genius hailed by BusinessWeek for "making hot sellers out of cold brands" helps corporate America get hip to the lucrative power of urban culture. When Fortune 500 companies need to redefine and rejuvenate a lagging brand they call Steve Stoute. Stoute has been at the forefront of America's marketing transformation, bringing Jay-Z to Reebok, Gwen Stefani to Hewlett Packard, having Justin Timberlake "lovin' it" at McDonald's, and creating other groundbreaking partnerships that have shattered old-guard notions of how to reach a broad spectrum of consumers. His message is that companies have not embraced the global changes in the culture to be able to talk to a new generation of consumers. He helps them connect to the youth market without seeming inauthentic while staying true to their core brands. The Tanning of America traces the evolution of hip hop culture and shows how it became mainstream, consequently having a huge influence in selling products and defining what is cool. It describes a phenomenon he calls "The Tanning of America" and targets a consumer that is 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. He then uses case studies from his own business to show how he bridged the worlds of pop culture, brand consulting and marketing, and offers keen insight into successful campaigns-that aren't a part of his portfolio of clients-that embrace this new generation of consumers.

A former record executive, Steve Stoute is the founder and CEO of Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging and Translation Advertising. He has been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, AdWeek and HBO's documentary, THE BLACK LIST. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008 and is a featured speaker at conferences around the country. Stoute lives in New York City.

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