New York Tribune Aunt Jemima Advertisement
Date
November 7th, 1909
Format
- Newspaper 1225
Publishers
Media
- newsprint 38
Techniques
- printing 438
Locations Made
- United States 756
- New York 368
This advertisement showcases good, yet culturally inauthentic design.
The design is “good” insofar as it is a successful advertisement to its target audience of white people, using the Black Mammy stereotype to promote its pancake mix as “homemade.”
Conversely, it is entirely culturally inauthentic: although the Aunt Jemima brand uses a black woman's face, it was started by two white men who took Aunt Jemima's name and face from posters on a vaudeville house in Missouri. The design also contains no traces of Black culture visually, which at the time involved protests against Jim Crow laws and the beginning of the Great Migration.
Recently, due to backlash in 2020, Aunt Jemima has rebranded to the Pearl Milling Company.
Advertisement for Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour