Quaker Oats rebranding its Aunt Jemima brand

In the wake of ongoing protests for racial equality, Quaker Oats has decided to embark on a big change with its Aunt Jemima brand.

The Chicago-based company, which is a subsidiary of PepsiCo, announced that the image of Aunt Jemima will be removed from packaging and the brand’s name as a whole also will be changed.

“As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations,” Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer at Quaker Foods North America said. “We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype. While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not enough.”

Packaging changes without Aunt Jemima will begin to appear throughout Q4 of 2020, and a name change will be announced at a later date and quickly follow the first phase of packaging changes, the company said.

“We acknowledge the brand has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the confidence, warmth and dignity that we would like it to stand for today,” Kroepfl said. “We are starting by removing the image and changing the name. We will continue the conversation by gathering diverse perspectives from both our organization and the Black community to further evolve the brand and make it one everyone can be proud to have in their pantry.”