16. Aunt Jemima’s appearance changed in the 1950s and 1960s
Under increased pressure from the NAACP and other organizations in the 1960s, Quaker Oats gradually changed the image of Aunt Jemima, removing most of its Mammy stereotypes. By 1968, the bandanna no longer adorned her head, replaced with a headband for a time. Her skin gradually lightened, she became less heavyset, and most of the racially offensive dialect disappeared from both print advertisements and those on television. Quakers stopped marketing products featuring the character, replacing them with others intended for use with the pancake mix (such as batter shakers). 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. Later she began to grow younger in appearance and shown only from the shoulders up on the packaging.
Aunt Jemima was not the only brand icon which underwent significant changes during the 1960s and 1970s. Uncle Ben’s Rice changed the appearance of its character from a butler to one of a Black man in his senior years wearing an open collar shirt. Frito’s Frito Bandito vanished completely in 1971. Mrs. Butterworth’s, a product which didn’t appear on the market until 1961, originally came in glass bottles shaped to appear as a servant, leading to accusations of racism. When the product was repackaged in plastic in the late 20th century, its shape changed dramatically. No backstory was created for the product (nor Uncle Ben’s) but their names came to be considered pejoratives in many cases, racial epithets stocked on grocery shelves.
