Advertising is key to how objects, belongings and design communicate ideology and make connections among the visual, the material, and the social. It contributes to how we see ourselves and one another and reveals shifting cultural meanings attached to things. In June 2020, for example, after over one hundred years, the Aunt Jemima brand name was finally recognized and removed as derogatory. This course examines advertising in the United States historically and thematically, paying particular attention to how race, ethnicity, and difference are represented in American society. Beginning with the late 19th century, we analyze advertising in relation to changing technologies. We study trade cards, print advertisements, posters, radio and television commercials, and film, from the perspectives of nationalism, racism, feminism, gender, capitalism and modernism. The aim is to understand how people construct, apprehend, and consume objects as forms of identity and meaning in the United States. The course familiarizes students with scholarly approaches to the topic of American Consumer Society and significant writings related to cultural studies, material culture, and consumerism. The course objective is to create visually informed and historically aware citizens.