The Off Topic Topic

[Zanza]

they're re branding aunt jemima and uncle bens. congrats to them and their upcoming massive loss of market share. But i guess at this point there's no choice.

I guess I lack cultural sensitivity here, but what is the issue with Unlce Ben's rice?  Never heard of the other brand.

[Tonitrus]

they're re branding aunt jemima and uncle bens. congrats to them and their upcoming massive loss of market share. But i guess at this point there's no choice.

I guess I lack cultural sensitivity here, but what is the issue with Unlce Ben's rice?  Never heard of the other brand.

Aunt Jemima's is a pancake mix/(fake)maple syrup, so of course mostly unknown in Europe. 

[Valmy]

Ok first of all he is a fictitious character, a mascot if you will. Secondly "Uncle" was a common way to refer to old slaves/servants back in the bad old days so it is your trusty black cook or rice picker or whatever.

Back in the 1940s this was something the culture recognized and picked up on. Now it is pretty obscure what exactly it refers to so it kind of passed without comment for the most part (I think, maybe there was a big anti-Uncle Ben's movement out there I didn't know about). But I guess it is time for something new.

[Zanza]

I wonder if they will rebrand it here as well as I guess the cultural reference is completely lost on consumers here.

[Sheilbh]

Do any of you have Captain Birdseye?

They re-branded him from twinkly Santa-looking old man on a boat full of children, to weirdly rugged and sexy man on a boat full of children. I'm not convinced it's an unalloyed success.

[Zanza]

Captain Birdseye is called Käpt'n Iglo in Germany. No idea if they changed him similarly to what you described. Apparently he is now supposed to appeal to adults and not just children. 

[Oexmelin]

The equivalent in Canada is Captain Highliner. And the extent of his recent makeover is that he lost his hat and turtleneck.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5103745/high-liner-foods-confirms-captain-s-makeover-with-trim-and-a-fresh-wardrobe-1.5103758

[Sheilbh]

Captain Birdseye of my childhood:


Then they re-branded him:


Not sure what he looks like now.

[Josquius]

It works like the  Santa Clause movie. He looks like the top one again.

Ok first of all he is a fictitious character, a mascot if you will. Secondly "Uncle" was a common way to refer to old slaves/servants back in the bad old days so it is your trusty black cook or rice picker or whatever.

Back in the 1940s this was something the culture recognized and picked up on. Now it is pretty obscure what exactly it refers to so it kind of passed without comment for the most part (I think, maybe there was a big anti-Uncle Ben's movement out there I didn't know about). But I guess it is time for something new.

Yeah, I had no idea about this uncle thing. I guess that explains uncle rebus too. I always just took uncle there to mean technically not related but close to the family adult guy.

[Barrister]

I dunno about the Uncle Ben / Aunt Jemima stuff.  I fully appreciate that they came from some fairly racist tropes.  But both characters have been heavily redesigned over the years and are now just depictions of a black man and a black woman, respectively.

A little while ago they removed the "Indian Maiden" from Land-o-Lakes butter.  But then someone pointed out that the character had been designed and created by a first nations artist.

I'm not convinced that removing depictions of people of colour from consumer products is really going to help anything.

[Valmy]

Well tell that to MARS or whomever

[garbon]

I dunno about the Uncle Ben / Aunt Jemima stuff.  I fully appreciate that they came from some fairly racist tropes.  But both characters have been heavily redesigned over the years and are now just depictions of a black man and a black woman, respectively.

A little while ago they removed the "Indian Maiden" from Land-o-Lakes butter.  But then someone pointed out that the character had been designed and created by a first nations artist.

I'm not convinced that removing depictions of people of colour from consumer products is really going to help anything.

I can tell you as a person of color that Aunt Jemima has always skeeved me out as a brand.

[crazy canuck]

I dunno about the Uncle Ben / Aunt Jemima stuff.  I fully appreciate that they came from some fairly racist tropes.  But both characters have been heavily redesigned over the years and are now just depictions of a black man and a black woman, respectively.

A little while ago they removed the "Indian Maiden" from Land-o-Lakes butter.  But then someone pointed out that the character had been designed and created by a first nations artist.

I'm not convinced that removing depictions of people of colour from consumer products is really going to help anything.

You may not be the person who matters here.

[The Larch]

Ok first of all he is a fictitious character, a mascot if you will. Secondly "Uncle" was a common way to refer to old slaves/servants back in the bad old days so it is your trusty black cook or rice picker or whatever.

Back in the 1940s this was something the culture recognized and picked up on. Now it is pretty obscure what exactly it refers to so it kind of passed without comment for the most part (I think, maybe there was a big anti-Uncle Ben's movement out there I didn't know about). But I guess it is time for something new.

And there's also the expression "Uncle Tom".

[The Larch]

Do any of you have Captain Birdseye?

They re-branded him from twinkly Santa-looking old man on a boat full of children, to weirdly rugged and sexy man on a boat full of children. I'm not convinced it's an unalloyed success.

We used to have a "Capitán Pescanova". It used to look like this:



And it got rebranded to a younger one as well:



Nowadays it's mostly about the uniform (yellow raincoat and cap, sometimes with a striped jersey), worn by a kid.