Focusing on the intersections of incarceration and mental illness has not been an easy task. While often deeply fulfilling and extremely disheartening at the same time, this project has allowed us to develop a critical lens through which to view certain elements of popular culture and mass media. With the explosive popularity of television shows like Orange is the New Black and American Horror Story: Asylum, many Americans are becoming aware of the imprisonment of people with mental illness, both contemporarily and historically. Even though images and representations of this issue have seemingly grown in the past few years, we began to wonder how these over-the-top, romanticized ideas have affected commercial culture.

Considering the combination of images and text found on “Lunatic 2012 White Wine,” also available in red wine, from Luna Vineyards, how have ideas of incarceration and mental illness been interpreted and reappropriated in order to attract consumers? How does this message work alongside and against messages of mental health and the mass incarceration crisis?