Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a statement. “We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype.”
“As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers’ expectations,”
“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 are not enough.” – Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America
Customers will start to see Aunt Jemima’s syrups, pancake mixes and other products without the image of Aunt Jemima later this year and a name change will be announced “at a later date,” according to PepsiCo.
Quaker Oats owns Aunt Jemima, PepsiCo is the parent company of Quaker Oats.
“This Aunt Jemima logo was 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,” Riché Richardson, an associate professor in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, wrote in the op-ed. “Visually, the plantation myth portrayed her as an asexual, plump black woman wearing a headscarf.” – From a 2015 op-ed in the NY Times
Also: Uncle Ben’s rice brand plans to ‘evolve’ and change ‘visual brand identity’
