‘Yikes’: Aunt Jemima Products Return With New Name and Logo — And Social Media Disdain
PepsiCo announced a new name and package for its Aunt Jemima products, which were pulled last year over the brand’s racist origins. The new look wasn’t for everyone, if social media reactions are any indication.
In June, the brand was part of a wave of products that were revamped when companies suddenly woke up to over a hundred years of complaints about racism. On Tuesday, PepsiCo announced the change in a press release:
PepsiCo, Inc., today announced the debut of Pearl Milling Company, the new name of the pancake mix and syrup varieties previously found under the Aunt Jemima brand.
Pearl Milling Company-branded pancake mixes, syrups, cornmeal, flour, and grits products will start to arrive in market in June 2021. Pearl Milling Company will offer people all their favorite pancake mix and syrup varieties in the same familiar red packaging previously found under the Aunt Jemima brand. Products will continue to be available under the Aunt Jemima name without the character image until June.
Though new to store shelves, Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima.
The reactions to the new packaging from prominent Twitter users were largely negative:
Now Pearl Mae gon’ be cooking up the pancakes.https://t.co/A47hiasJ7Y
— Marsha Warfield (@MarshaWarfield) February 10, 2021
Aunt Jemima now looks like a generic knockoff that you see at the store of Aunt Jemima. https://t.co/pHVophvBLu
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) February 10, 2021
Yikes. I’ll stick to my agave nectar. https://t.co/FxfeDSJMKJ
— Rebecca Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) February 10, 2021
I’m offended https://t.co/azlGPZG5hK
— Sara Pearl (@skenigsberg) February 10, 2021
Wait, as a professional namer, I’m wondering why Pearl Milling Company was the best name they could come up with? Also the photo looks indigestible.
— Caroline Leavitt (@Leavittnovelist) February 10, 2021
Toxic by any other name is still toxic.
— Tracy Perez (@Tracy_Perez) February 10, 2021
Change the name, not the taste https://t.co/uG7hUrtk1x
— John Walton (@John_Walton_) February 10, 2021
New bottle looks like what would be in the 99cent store to fool ya. https://t.co/SjGHZDwtm1
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 10, 2021
Imagine being white enough that this is what “too far” feels like for you ? https://t.co/RRrfTrbxnH
— Ben Philippe (@gohomeben) February 10, 2021
Fucking liberals always ruining our syrup! https://t.co/77fDBRlq46
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) February 10, 2021
Trash, trash, trash, TRASH. I hate it. https://t.co/YAUFvxYYO5
— Sachelle Saunders (@SachelleOnAir) February 10, 2021
They’d be better off just making it Pepsi brand. https://t.co/ONk9TFHocq
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 10, 2021
There were the odd defenders of the new package.
When I was in middle school in the late 90s, the go-to insult a lot of white kids lobbed at Black women was calling them “Aunt Jemima,” so I don’t buy this narrative that the racist part of the branding was forgotten long ago and now it’s just an inoffensive mascot.
— Max Burns (@themaxburns) February 10, 2021
The change made news across the country, but among the cable news networks, only CNN has covered it so far,
Watch that report above via CNN.
