The Mars-owned rice products brand formerly known as Uncle Ben’s announced last week it is changing its name to Ben’s Original. Mars unveiled the design for its new Ben's Original rice products brand packaging a week ago. “Therefore, we are removing the chef image from all Cream of Wheat packaging.” “While research indicates the image may be based upon an actual Chicago chef named Frank White, it reminds some consumers of earlier depictions they find offensive,” B&G told CNN Business. Archived Cream of Wheat ads from the early 20th century indicate the original Cream of Wheat chef was named Rastus, a dimwitted former enslaved person, portrayed in blackface minstrel shows during the same era.įor years, Cream of Wheat has insisted its logo image was that of early 20th century Chicago chef Frank White. The hot breakfast cereal brand initiated a review of the Black chef on its packaging in June - a day after Aunt Jemima made its rebrand announcement. (BGS), announced last week that it will remove the Black chef from its packaging beginning in the first quarter of 2021. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesĬream of Wheat’s parent company, B&G Foods ”Ī box of Instant Cream of Wheat is arranged for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Sept. “It will take time for the changes to fully move through our complex supply chain, but consumers will see changes yet this year and early next. “Our consumers are still looking for the Aunt Jemima products they know and love, especially during a time when we’ve seen empty store shelves due to the pandemic,” Joan Cetera, vice president of communications for PepsiCo Foods North America told CNN Business. Supply chain issues have delayed the process as well. Pepsi says it’s been working to come up with a Jemima replacement that maintains the company’s valuable brand recognition. The beverage and food maker says the new logo and branding for Aunt Jemima will start hitting store shelves in October and will continue rolling out throughout the fourth quarter of 2020. Jemima’s image can still be found at grocery stores nationwide, Pepsi The pancake mix and syrup brand owned by Quaker Foods and its parent company PepsiCo acknowledged Jemima’s roots in slavery and minstrel shows and committed to replacing her name and likeness with something less offensive, without specifying when the change would take place. It was the news of Aunt Jemima’s eventual replacement that started a domino effect for racist brand names back in June. Here’s where each company stands with its brand overhaul:īottles of Aunt Jemima pancake syrup are displayed on a shelf at Scotty's Market on Jin San Rafael, California. It’s an expensive change and these companies paid a lot of money for these brand equities.” You pay less for a commodity than you do for a brand. “When you take those characters away, you’re left with a commodity.
The biggest challenge for these companies is that “the only thing differentiating their brand from the store brand was Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben,” Adamson told CNN Business.
Each of their mascots, Adamson says, has spent decades developing valuable name recognition, which he estimates is worth millions of dollars. Yet most of the food brands’ problematic packaging can still be found on grocery store shelves today, even though several of the companies have already begun rebranding their products.Īllen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a New York-based branding consulting firm, suggests maintaining brand identity is both a priority and a problem for most of these companies. It took the Washington Football Team less than two months to pull its racist former mascot off merchandise after retailers and corporate sponsors - including Target, Amazon and Fed Ex - all but forced the team to change its logo in July, ending decades of resistance from the NFL franchise. The acknowledgments came less than a month after the police killing of George Floyd, which ignited a nationwide racial reckoning that corporate America has been forced to address. It’s been more than three months since Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Cream of Wheat and several other food companies made national headlines by acknowledging the racist origins of some of their brand mascots and announcing plans to change them.
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