Pitch Black
The best Black ads of the past 50+ years
What if the most influential architects of modern American pop culture weren't the ad men of Mad Men, but the unsung Black creatives who built their own ad agencies in the shadows of Jim Crow?
Pitch Black: The best Black ads of the past 50+ years officially goes on sale September 7, 2026, and is destined to challenge what you think you know about American business, fashion and culture.
Pitch Black chronicles a pivotal chapter in America's Civil Rights movement, revealing how advertising created by Black people and for Black people became one of the most effective tools — and weapons — of the Civil Rights movement, changing the world's perception of Black America. Advertising enabled America to get to know Black people in ways that would have been impossible otherwise.
Pitch Black is a remarkable collection that cannot be found in any other book, library, or museum. Interspersed between chapters of historical narration, the book showcases the advertising images for each of the five decades of the past 50 years and chronicles a previously unrecorded chapter of the history of American business, fashion and culture.
They reveal how Black identity, in all its freshness and different beauty, turned Blackness into a "brand" that America wanted to buy. The book examines the history of Black America from a previously unexplored perspective.
Watch the Trailer
Take a look at the trailer for the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsXQMgrn4ng
Praise for Pitch Black
Mark Robinson has done it again. In Pitch Black he gives us an engaging picture of advertising done by and for Black folks. He's brought together a wide range of advertisements with a bunch that you'll remember and some that you've overlooked. And alongside the ads, he's brought sharp analysis written in his trademark style. And his is no mere surface analysis, Mark goes deep into the history to uncover the stories behind the creation and intention of the ads and their impact on society and Black culture. Pitch Black is a book that you should definitely buy and add to your collection.
— Jason P. Chambers, Ph.D.
Author, Associate Dean for DEI | Associate Professor, Advertising
Mark S. Robinson's Pitch Black is a fantastic archive of American advertising and Black identity across decades. Overall, this is a brilliant read, and those interested in media and Black history branding, and American pop culture will enjoy it.
— Asher Sayed
Reader's Favorite
Finally, someone said it out loud. I've worked in and around marketing long enough to know that Black creativity has always driven culture while rarely getting the credit. Mark Robinson changes that with this book. Flipping through decades of groundbreaking Black advertising is both a celebration and a gut punch, you see the brilliance, but you also feel the weight of how much was overlooked or co-opted. Robinson knows this world from the inside out, and it shows. This isn't just a collection of great ads; it's a cultural record that needed to exist.
— Crystal G. Robert
Goodreads
Get Your Copy
Available September 7, 2026 wherever books are sold.