Brand Activism: Aunt Jemima is shedding its racist past
Aunt Jemima, the brand founded in 1889 and built on images of a black female character that have often been denounced as offensive and racist, will change its name and image amid an ongoing backlash, with its parent company Quaker Oats acknowledging that the brand’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”
Recently, Quaker Oats, which is owned by PespiCo, resolved to make sweeping changes on its portfolio of brands as it worked towards racial equality through several rebranding and marketing initiatives.
The packaging changes, according to reports, will begin to appear toward the end of 2020, with the name change coming soon after.
Commenting on the changes, Kristin Kroepfl, Quaker’s chief marketing officer said: “While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realise those changes are not enough.”
Amid nationwide protests over racism and police brutality in recent weeks, many companies rushed to express their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, often running into accusations of hypocrisy. But PepsiCo was already familiar with the fallout — in 2017, it apologised for running an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, a white model that was criticised for trivialising the movement.
PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats in 2001, inheriting the Aunt Jemima brand. Ramon Laguarta, the chief executive of PepsiCo, wrote in a piece in Fortune this week that “the journey for racial equality has long been part of our company’s DNA.”
The Aunt Jemima brand was inspired by a minstrel song called “Old Aunt Jemima” and was once described by Riché Richardson, an associate professor of African-American literature in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, as “an outgrowth of Old South plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the ‘mammy,’ a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own.”
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