Corporate mascots. The most successful ones are so well-associated with a product or service, you can identify the brand just from its mascot.
Think Ronald McDonald of burger chain fame, or Snap, Crackle & Pop from Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal.
Corporate mascots have been around since the early 19th century. Companies discovered that creating them for brand identification not only helped with name recognition, they helped build brand loyalty, too.
Come on, when you think of canned vegetables, isn't the Jolly Green Giant the first guy who comes to mind?
Over the years, though, some mascots have gotten their corporate parents into hot water, especially as modern popular opinion began to change.
As our social morals evolved, what was once acceptable to the majority might be seen as insulting to a particular race or ethnic group.
Some corporate mascots came off as belittling, insensitive, or downright racist by today's standards of social acceptance. There are plenty of examples.
Remember the Frito Bandito? When I was a kid, watching Saturday morning cartoons, I'd see him during many a commercial break.
There he was, hawking corn chips made by the Frito-Lay Company. An innocent enough character for us kids, but he couldn't survive in the politically correct age in which we now live. Little wonder.
In the days before we worried about building a wall between us and Mexico, he was presented as a Mexican conman, a dusty ruffian, who spoke broken English, with a big gold tooth in his mouth.
His trademark act was to rob victims of their Fritos corn chips. (Oh, my!)
The Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee complained about his character.
At first, Frito-Lay responded by attempting to clean up his look, featuring better-coiffed hair and a kinder demeanor. Didn't work, though; the Frito Bandito stole his last bag of corn chips, as he was later retired from our TV screens.
Who doesn't love a creamy, chocolaty Eskimo Pie?
As the story goes, a candy shop owner came up with the idea that a chocolate bar combined with vanilla ice cream was a great idea. (No argument here.) And so, in 1921, the Eskimo Pie was born.
The wrapper featured the image of an Inuit boy wearing a parka. The Inuits are an indigenous people native to the Arctic regions of North America and parts of Greenland. We all grew up referring to them simply as “Eskimos.”
The image was fine for decades, until some North American Inuits began objecting to use of the word "Eskimo."
To them, the name was insulting to their people. The controversy continues to this day, albeit quietly. But the name "Eskimo" has become so ingrained in popular culture, the off-and-on bad publicity has not persuaded its maker, the Nestle company, to create a new name for its iconic ice cream bar.
Eskimo Pies still stock the frozen treats section of our local supermarkets.
Of course, African-Americans have dealt with their share of stereotypical images that might have been defined as racist.
From the grandfatherly black man on a box of Uncle Ben's Rice to the handsome younger man who dons the Cream Of Wheat box, blacks have had to deal with images of our race being portrayed as the harmless and content domestic servant.
Most famous among them would be Aunt Jemima, whose face is instantly associated with pancakes by the same name.
Aunt Jemima's roots are a little rough around the edges, although maker of the brand, Quaker Oats, offers a more romantic, almost storybook-like history of her on its website.
Here's the more historic version of her story.
Aunt Jemima pancake mix, a novelty at the time (novel because it was "instant") was introduced and marketed by a pair of speculators from Missouri.
The mix was originally known simply as "Self-Rising Pancake Flour." (Not very catchy, right?) Chris L. Rutt, one of its creators, wanted a more pleasing name.
The story goes, Mr. Rutt, while attending a vaudeville/minstrel show, heard a tune called "Aunt Jemima."
The song was performed by a black-faced performer wearing an apron and kerchief wrapped around her head.
A lightbulb went off in Mr. Rutt's head. He loved it, and voila! Aunt Jemima Pancakes were born.
It should be noted, the song "Aunt Jemima" was often sung by slaves as they worked in the south's cotton fields.
Nancy Green, a former slave, was even hired to portray the living trademark of Aunt Jemima, although the portrait on the box is an artist's fictional imagining of the character.
You wouldn't recognize the Aunt Jemima who was first featured on the box. Most blacks, as well as many whites, would find the original rendering offensive.
Today's Aunt Jemima has been completely modernized. Gone is the kerchief, apron, and exaggerated features of the African-American "Mammy" figure portrayed 100 years ago.
In her latest version, she looks more like a black female executive who might be CEO of the Quaker Oats Company.
And now, for the latest entry in the racial stereotype wars.
A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook about the Native American maiden who, for years, has appeared on the Land O' Lakes butter package.
If you're a Land O' Lakes fan, maybe you've noticed? After having graced the package for nearly 100 years, today, she's gone.
Did you know?
In her earliest days, she was even given a name by the Land 'O Lakes company: "Mia."
As a work of art, I'd always thought the package was invitingly serene and, yes, beautiful.
In her original portrayal, Mia was kneeling, backed by a lushly forested Minnesota lake scene, as she presented a box of the company's butter. I saw nothing racist in her image at all. But wait.
After posting about the new package, and the company's removal of Mia's image, one of my Facebook friends called that decision itself racist. Another alleged it was political correctness run amuck.
And to be honest, I myself, at first, thought the decision went a bit overboard. At the same time, I had to entertain a mental caveat.
What did Native Americans themselves think of Mia? Turns out there's a backstory worth exploring.
Native Americans have often considered the image racist. Land O' Lakes butter was founded by a group of 320 Minnesota farmers in St. Paul, back in 1921.
Mia was added to the company's packaging seven years later, in 1928.
She has undergone a couple of redos over the years; the most notable was in the 1950's.
Then, Land O' Lakes zoomed in for a more closeup view, focusing on her face. Mia was still wearing a buckskin dress and feather headdress but was no longer featured in a kneeling position.
Seems the new image would make her look less submissive, I guess?
Good thing, too.
North Dakota state represenative Ruth Buffalo (D) not only called the image racist; she added, it goes "hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls...by depicting Native women as sex objects."
Buffalo continued, "Yes, it's a good thing for the company to remove the image...but we can't stop there. We as a whole need to to keep pushing forward to address the underlying issues that directly impact an entire population that survived genocide."
Ms. Buffalo is the first Native American Democratic Woman elected to the North Dakota state legislature.
I must say, her observations put a whole new spin on the beauty and innocence I once attributed to the Native American woman pictured on the package. (I have remind myself of how offended African-Americans are by the original images of Aunt Jemima.)
As for Land O' Lakes, the company's CEO, Beth Ford, said in a news release looking forward to its 100th anniversary the company was "repackaging" its products.
The front of the package will retain its lush, Minnesota lake and woods scene, minus Mia.
Instead, the words "Farmer Owned" will be added, emphasizing its historic roots as a farmer-based company. Fair enough; just don't change the taste of my Land O' Lakes butter, okay? (I love the stuff.)
From the Frito Bandito and his corn chips, to Aunt Jemima and her pancakes and now, to Mia and her Land O' Lakes butter, company mascots keep on changing, or disappearing altogether. But we shouldn't be surprised.
Let's not be so quick to call a corporate decision "racist" or accuse a company of going overboard with their attempts at being "politically correct."
Hey, I'm the first to admit, taken to extremes, political correctness can be very annoying.
As our beliefs continues to evolve, though, let's do strive to be a more sensitive and inclusive society, respecting the feelings of those people who don't look or think like us.
In the meantime, all this talk about corn chips, pancakes and butter has made me hungry.
I've got some in the freezer right now, and as I unwrap one from its foil package, I'll never think of an Eskimo Pie the same.
(I wonder if Nestle will ever change the name?)
Jones is a writer and a proud graduate of both Hattiesburg High School and the University of Southern Mississippi. Look for his column in The PineBelt NEWS every other week.
