15. Aunt Jemima’s personal appearances became controversial in the 1950s
The 1950s saw several changes in the civil rights movement, which affected advertising in print, television, radio, and personal appearances. Organizations like the NAACP, churches, and community boards and groups lobbied to preclude racial stereotypes from public events. Aunt Jemima became increasingly controversial, and personal appearances fell from their peak in the 1940s. Though Quaker still had more than one actress appearing as Aunt Jemima during the 1950s, she was absent from more and more of the events in which she had formerly been popular. On television, her appearance limited itself to commercials for her products, and she ceased to be an entertainer in variety show skits, other than when parodied by other performers.
Gradually Aunt Jemima herself vanished from many commercials for the products, replaced by the stars of the shows sponsored by Quaker Oats. The Nelson family of television’s The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet did several commercials broadcast with their show, without Aunt Jemima appearing, other than her face on the box is prominently displayed. Commercials featuring Boy Scouts, including both Black and White Scouts, showed them enjoying Aunt Jemima pancakes while camping, Others featured wholesome family breakfasts or other uses of the product (such as making corn pancakes) appeared, but the iconic character did not. Another used for Bewitched featured Darren and his boss, Larry Tate, trying to come up with a slogan for Aunt Jemima syrup. Samantha solved the problem with her characteristic nose twitch. By the late 1960s, most performers in Aunt Jemima commercials were White.
