Aunt Jemima Original Pancake-Waffle Mix - 907g

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It’s tough to gauge the reaction to Aunt Jemima’s new branding, said Apex Marketing Group president Eric Smallwood, who says the reception for the new branding will depend on Pepsi’s rollout plan. Even so, PepsiCo left the Aunt Jemima brand largely intact until the murder in the summer of 2020 of a 46-year-old Black man named George Floyd, which led to worldwide protests. The 130-year-old brand features a Black woman named Aunt Jemima, who was originally dressed as a minstrel character.

Early versions were portrayed as poor people with patches on the trousers, large mouths, and missing teeth.The new branding was launched that June, one year after the company announced they would drop Aunt Jemima branding. But the centerpiece of the display as envisioned by Davis was Aunt Jemima herself, telling stories, singing, dancing, and most importantly demonstrating the ease of making pancakes using her flour.

We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a news release. Accused of engaging in racial stereotyping, it was rebranded from Aunt Jemima to Pearl Milling Company by its current owner, PepsiCo, in 2021. By the early 1970s, Quaker’s ad teams described her appearance as being that of a Black grandmother, well-dressed, adorned with jewelry and always smiling.

Ads such as this one, linking Aunt Jemima to the fictional South of the Lost Cause, made the product name reviled and insulting.

Subsequent advertising agencies hired dozens of actors to perform the role as the first organized sales promotion campaign.Gardella once sued NBC for using the name Aunt Jemima on a radio broadcast, claiming her long use of the name gave her exclusive rights to its use.