[Brazelton] Aunt Jemima (1889-2020)

Hey motherfuckers, what's up?

Let's talk about branding. Products sold to the general population live and die by it. If you have a great brand you do everything in your power to promote and protect it. Brands themselves are the source of revenue. Pepsi paid a fortune to buy Gatorade, they didn't spend all that money to learn the secrets of making flavoured water.

Which brings us to flavourless high fructose corn syrup in a hokey plastic bottle. Let's be honest, it tastes like shit and has no business on any pancake. This terrible product has lasted over a hundred years now, based solely on the power of its brand. It's just corn syrup, you can buy it by the rail car it's so mundane.

But today, the company that makes it announced they are abandoning the brand.

This where you need to take moment and recognize the significance of this manufacturer's action.

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Now, I hope that the company is doing this for altruistic reasons, but that's not how capitalism works. They're doing it because they no longer see their brand as profitable.

Now let that sink in.

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Yeah, that's right, racist iconography is no longer profitable in the USA.

So this is a good day.

Just, watch your feet kids, lots of melted snowflake puddles on the ground today.

And to bluntly point out the power of branding, I didn't even need to name it. :)
 
At first, I thought you were talking about Mrs. Butterworth's.
But yeah, they're feeling the heat, too.

--Patrick
The Cream of Wheat complaint is a little more complicated than is depicted in this article.
In the 1800's, Cream of Wheat had a character named Rastus on the package. In the early 1900's, that character was dropped, and a a real black chef, Frank L. White was added. Kudos for dropping the slightly racist Rastus character. But still feels exploitative.
 
Honestly, for all the making fun of this stuff, this is a good thing. We live in a country driven by money. When people start changing these things because they think it's going to affect their bottom line, I see it as a good thing, even if it is somewhat inconsequential.
 
What about the Canadian Football League team from Edmonton? Will they now be known as the Edmonton Inuits?
 
The Cream of Wheat complaint is a little more complicated than is depicted in this article.
In the 1800's, Cream of Wheat had a character named Rastus on the package. In the early 1900's, that character was dropped, and a a real black chef, Frank L. White was added. Kudos for dropping the slightly racist Rastus character. But still feels exploitative.
Dammit, I just found out that the guy that made the Rastus character is likely related to me.
 
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