The previous post featuring a perspective opining Adland could enhance its appeal to clients by embracing restaurant-style hospitality inspired additional commentary.
To execute the notion, White advertising agencies should emulate iconic, renowned hospitality leaders:
The previous post on Dos Equis spotlighted a common practice among White advertising agencies, whereby iconic campaign characters are revived and/or resuscitated to reinvigorate a brand.
The reintroductions include gushing from CEOs, CMOs, and CCOs, revealing sales were best during promotions of the past, the updated critter will ignite a boring category, the public demanded the reappearance, blah, blah, blah.
Has anyone considered bringing back Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus?
The same marketing criteria mentioned above can surely be applied to the famed triumvirate.
Hell, Honey Bunches of Oats once coaxed Diana Hunter—the Honey Bunches of Oats Lady—out of retirement.
Who’s next—Mia the Land O’Lakes Native American Maiden, the Frito Bandito, and Annie the Chicken Queen?
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war!
Closing out a quiet Black History Month in Adland—and playing off the theme of African Americans and Labor—marks an appropriate moment to consider Aunt Jemima.
Aunt Jemima “retired” in 2020, appearing as a contemporary Black woman sporting pearl earrings, the final phase of her evolving persona.
The character was born in 1889 to promote the Pearl Milling Company. Despite the revisionist rebranding, the Aunt Jemima journey began with slavery.
Even in the 1950s, the official legend of Aunt Jemima revealed a victim of forced labor. She worked as a cook on Colonel Higbee’s plantation, delighting White men and women with her culinary genius.
After over 100 years of service, Aunt Jemima lost her job to a logo—during Black History Month to boot—as the original Pearl Milling Company was resurrected.
The iconic tale of Aunt Jemima is more than Black history—it’s American history.
Adweek and Ad Patina are selling vintage advertisements—including framing services—for prices up to $700…?!
A quick view of the website showed no advertisements featuring Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, or Rastus. Didn’t spot any offerings from multicultural advertising agencies either.
Find the perfect holiday gift for White advertising agency fans—but don’t expect a Black Friday sale.
MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.
This is not really a Delayed WTF; but rather, a Delayed 👍
In 2020, the Columbia Law Review published Aunt Jemima’s Resignation Letter. Hey, PepsiCo claimed it was a retirement. Regardless, the letter is definitely worth reviewing.
Quaker launched a promotional photo series—100 Reasons to Rise—featuring portraits of people aged 1 to 100 years experiencing emotional breakfast moments.
The images were captured by prominent photographers Misan Harriman and Domizia Salusest, allowing Quaker to conveniently check off two diversity vendor boxes.
Not present in any of the scenes: Aunt Jemima. Such a missed opportunity to add a ~135-year-old to the collection.
How does Pearl Milling Company—the brand formerly known as Aunt Jemima—celebrate BHM 2024? Not at all. Seems like recalling Aunt Jemima would be a perfect tribute to Black history. Instead, the 130-year-old enterprise continues to hype its P.E.A.R.L. Pledge heat shield, awarding grants “to nonprofit organizations that are making a positive impact through the P.E.A.R.L. Pledge pillars”—a patronizing stack of performative PR pancakes.
Green Giant is staging a stunt—Friendsgiving—in partnership with No Kid Hungry. The event includes organizing a gathering of friends, as demonstrated via the images depicted here.
Not invited to Green Giant’s patronizing party: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus. Gee, that’s not very friendly.
Comicbook.com reported Cap’n Crunch underwent a transformation, receiving a four-striped uniform and five fingers. The character’s original three-striped jacket—which was called out many years ago—signified that he held a commander ranking, which is one naval level below a captain. In short, he’s been impersonating an officer forever. Yet he’s clearly avoiding charges by taking advantage of his White privilege. Aunt Jemima and Rastus would never have gotten away with that—and Uncle Ben was quietly stripped of his CEO role.
Cap’n Crunch Debuts New Four-Stripe Uniform
The iconic cereal character finally has a uniform befitting his captain’s rank.
By Nicole Drum
For years, fans of Cap’n Crunch have had one persistent complaint about the iconic cereal icon's jacket. The Cap’n’s jacket has for years only featured three stripes, which in naval terms means he’s only a commander — the rank below captain. Now, in celebration of the Cap’n’s 60th birthday this year, he’s getting a whole new look and finally getting the stripes to match his rank. On Thursday, Cap’n Crunch unveiled the Cap’n’s new look with a brand-new jacket featuring four-striped sleeves fit for a captain.
The beloved cereal character’s new look will get its big debut outside San Diego Comic-Con where, in a nod to his 60th birthday this year, 60 of his “Crunchmates” will appear dressed as the Cap’n himself complete with the new four-stripe look. You can check it the new look [above].
“With the celebration of Cap’n Crunch’s 60th birthday this year, we thought it was only fitting to commemorate his epic 60 years of tasty adventures with a fresh new look,” says Kristin Kroepfl, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Quaker Foods North America at PepsiCo. “What better way to unveil the beloved Cap’n Crunch’s new four-striped look than with his cosplaying Crunchmates around one of the most iconic pop culture events of the year?!”
The unveiling of the new look isn’t exactly a surprise. Cap’n Crunch’s official social media channels have been teasing the new look for a few days, hinting at the addition of the fourth strip that makes him “officially” a captain. The new look will roll out on cereal boxes, treat bars and more in stores nationwide.
Cap’n Crunch getting a new look is just the latest celebration of the cereal mascot’s 60th birthday this year. Earlier this year, the Cap’n celebrated six decades of breakfast adventure by hosting a birthday bash at Coachella.
A recent post on UK Mad Women in Adland noted that one of the spotlighted creative executives hatched the culturally clueless advertisement depicted above.
Turns out the Mad Woman shouldn’t be too harshly judged for the concept. After all, the advertiser—Robertson’s—had utilized a golliwog as its brand symbol since at least 1910. The origin story claims the company visited the US to set up a plant in Boston, where a family member bought a golliwog doll. The image first appeared on price lists, eventually being adopted as Robertson’s official mark.
In short, Robertson’s Golly is the UK equivalent of US characters like Rastus, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jemima. The critter retired in 2002, with Robertson’s insisting they were not bowing to political correctness; rather, the decision was made for commercial reasons.
So, it shows how brands can come to see a need to remove racism from advertising. Which begs the question as to why such clients won’t do likewise by removing the systemic racism presented via partnerships with White advertising agencies.
Golly, it sure is baffling.
It’s been roughly two years since PepsiCo erased Aunt Jemima and reintroduced Pearl Milling Company.
Per the corporate website navigation logos, Pearl Milling Company boasts having existed “Since 1889”—yet still embraces the “Same Great Taste As Aunt Jemima.”
“Our History” delivers revisionist history, acknowledging how the company bought and adopted the Aunt Jemima brand, while ignoring how the “mammy cook” toiled on the plantation of her master, Colonel Higbee.
The iconic mammy figure has been replaced by seemingly stock photography of grinning Black women, presumably representing the recipients of P.E.A.R.L. Pledges.
In 2022, PepsiCo and Pearl Milling Company awarded “$1 million in grants to seventeen nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating opportunities for Black women and girls across the country.” Although $1 million feels like low reparations after profiting from Aunt Jemima for over 125 years.
One can’t help but wonder about the number of Black women actually working for PepsiCo and Pearl Milling Company. And how many Black women lead at the advertising agencies cooking up campaigns for Pearl Milling Company?
The truth is probably a pile of pancake crumbs.
Researching the recent erasures and revisions of racist brand icons such as Aunt Jemima, Mia the Land O’Lakes Maiden, and Uncle Ben led to an interesting discovery. The food company whose portfolio includes Cream of Wheat—represented for generations by Rastus—also manufactures Brer Rabbit® goodies. Here’s the corporate website hype:
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For more than 100 years, Brer Rabbit® has been a trusted household brand used in cherished family recipes. Made of the finest quality unsulfured juice of sun-ripened sugarcane, Brer Rabbit sugarcane molasses contains no preservatives, artificial flavor or artificial color. It’s a key ingredient for baking and cooking.
Brer Rabbit Molasses comes in three grades: mild flavor, full flavor and blackstrap. All three grades are unsulfured molasses, making them the finest quality of sugarcane molasses available. Brer Rabbit is also available in two syrup varieties: full and light flavors.
The Brer Rabbit name comes from the mischievous Br’er Rabbit from the Uncle Remus folktales passed down by oral tradition in the 1800s and popularized for mainstream audiences in the late 19th century by the published works of Joel Chandler Harris. In these tales, Br’er Rabbit is a trickster who wins by using his wits instead of brawn. Trickery and fun can certainly come in handy in the kitchen as you create winning dishes with Brer Rabbit!
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Okey-doke. To further comprehend the cultural complexities, brush up on your Brer Rabbit history.
