The company said in a statement that while work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful we realize those changes. Quaker oats spoke up first announcing in june that aunt jemima the name and face of the brand s syrup and pancake mix for more than 130 years would be no more. Pepsico will change the name and brand image of its aunt jemima pancake mix and syrup dropping a mascot that has been.
The aunt jemima image was supposed to be upgraded in 2016. The descendants of two women who portrayed the aunt jemima character on quaker oats food products are expressing concerns that the company s recent awakening and proposed decision to scrap the. The familiar figure on pancake mixes and syrup will have a new gray streaked hair style minus the headband pearl earrings and a.
Aunt jemima is going to have a new look her first in 21 years. Rastus a pejorative term associated with black men was the name of the. Like aunt jemima and uncle ben the cream of wheat logo was a product of the antebellum south.
Aunt jemima is perhaps the oldest and most enduring example of a brand built on a black stereotype an outgrowth of old south plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the. Aunt jemima definition a black woman considered by other black people to be subservient to or to curry favor with white people. Green s aunt jemima was so popular she even prompted the.
A 1940 s print ad for aunt jemima branded products green was born a slave in kentucky in the 1830s but would become known for her cooking. Although depictions vary over time they are similar to the common attire and physical features of mammy characters throughout history. Her skin is dark and dewy with a pearly white smile.
Aunt jemima is based on the common enslaved mammy archetype a plump black woman wearing a headscarf who is a devoted and submissive servant. Aunt jemima was also part of the blackface. The aunt jemima caricature was a product of the white imagination and the minstrel shows of 19th century america smithers told marketwatch.
