Aunt Jemima

One of the early convenience products was pre-made pancake mix. In 1889 the first mix was developed by Missouri reporter Chris Rutt, who loved pancakes but didn’t want to make them from scratch. So he mixed up a big batch and started selling it in grocery stores, where it was a big failure. The reasoning was, why pay for something you could mix up more cheaply yourself?

That is where advertising comes in, it created a desire for the product by creating a popular spokesman. Rutt had seen a show with blackface comedians. The comedians, Baker and Farrell, had a popular act featuring Baker dressed up as a African American cook, this music accompanying this act was the tune “Aunt Jemima.”

Rutt took this idea and ran with it. Once the name was on the package the product started to sell locally and Rutt soon sold it to a national food concern. That company hired Nancy Green, an African American cook, to make and give away pancakes to visitors at the Chicago World’s Fair. She toured for the rest of her life as the living embodiment of Aunt Jemima. She was one of the earliest advertising icons in the United States. Fortunately, today the racism of the advertising concept has lead to many changes in the way the cook is portrayed.

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