Turns out that Quaker Oats is owned by Pepsico. Pepsico may be pandering to the woke crowd but in so doing, they are memory-holing a cultural icon. From Breitbart:
Nancy Green, Freed Slave and Trailblazing Corporate Model, Was 1st Aunt Jemima
Pepsico, the corporation that owns the Aunt Jemima brand, is erasing the name and the logo portrait of a black woman “to make progress toward racial equality” and in doing so is also erasing the legacy of Nancy Green, a freed slave who had a long career with the Quaker Oats company as a storyteller, actress, and singer.
Nancy Green’s story is told in a number of places, including in a YouTube video about her life and career. She is also featured on the African American Registry website:
On this date we celebrate the birth of Nancy Green in 1834. She was a Black storyteller and one of the first black corporate models in the United States.
The world knew her as “Aunt Jemima,” but her given name was Nancy Green. The famous Aunt Jemima recipe was not her recipe but she became the advertising world’s first living trademark.
Miss Green was born a slave in Montgomery County, Kentucky. Chris Rutt, a newspaperman, and Charles Underwood bought the Pearl Milling Company and had the original idea of developing and packaging a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour. To survive in a highly competitive business, the men needed an image for their product.
But Nancy Green, at 56, was hired to help the company sell their product at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Green, as Aunt Jimema, cooked and served thousands of pancakes while telling stories and even singing songs.
“Her warm and appealing personality made her the ideal ‘Aunt Jemima,’ a living trademark. Her exhibition booth drew so many people that special policemen were assigned to keep the crowds moving. The Davis Milling Company received over 50,000 orders, and Fair officials awarded Nancy Green a medal and certificate for her showmanship.”
After the fair, Green was signed to a lifelong contract and worked until she died in an car accident in 1923, according to the African American Registry.
The Women of Every Complexion and Complexity website described Green as a “talented entrepreneur” and “transitional symbol.”
The people acting out today have zeero sense of history and zero sense of the future. All they are aware of is the immediate NOW and satisfying their wants NOW. Just like a 6-year old.
And, of course, other corporations have to follow suit to show that they can be just as progressive and WOKE! as everyone else:
Mrs. Butterworth’s to Undergo ‘Complete Brand and Packaging Review’
Uncle Ben’s Plans to Change Its ‘Brand Identity’ to ‘End Racial Biases’
The only race that I can see is a race to the bottom. Who can out-pander the other in the hopes that they will be cancelled last. Show some stones people. I bet your shareholders would back you up on this. These are some historic and famous brands you are tossing out with the bathwater.
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