Thursday, January 22, 2015

Racial Iconography

Race, being a social construct, is heavily present in society. We find race commonly intertwined with popular culture. Race is often present in food advertising.

Many icons of modern day food products can be traced back to the antebellum era. An example of this is Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix. Aunt Jemima is a clear allusion to the Mammy stereotype. In fact, the original Aunt Jemima was the perfect representation of this stereotype. This round and happy character is a clear Mammy. Although it is questionable whether or not this stereotype hold over to modern day. The Aunt Jemima figure has been slimmed down a bit, but the “Auntie” title remains. Aunt Jemima has strayed from commercial advertising recently, but they did run a commercial in 1994 where a Mammy figure is portrayed.

Another example of this is found in Uncle Ben’s rice. Uncle Ben is portrayed as the Sambo stereotype, having gray hair and a carefree nature. However in this case, Uncle Ben is simply an icon for the brand, a character that is not used in their advertising. In a recent commercial, Uncle Ben’s rice was advertised using racially ambiguous characters. The focus of the commercial was to encourage healthy eating and cooking.

Another character that we see in food advertising is the spokesperson for Popeye’s chicken. This lady matches the stereotype of a Mammy; she has a carefree attitude and a similar body type to the stereotypical Mammy. But the commercials seem to focus more on the culture of Louisiana rather than racial culture. This ambiguity can make it difficult to find the true underlying message that the commercials are sending.

While many pieces of food advertising have formerly used racial stereotypes to promote their product, it is hard to figure out whether these stereotypes still exist today. While the racist iconography may be present, the focus of many of the advertisements distracts the viewer from this. We still see these characters in many forms of food advertising. The truth remains, food companies covertly use racial iconography to promote their product.

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