Two Black Faces: The Power of a Sales Pitch
February 1-April15, 2009
A series of advertisements in mainstream
magazines in the first half of the 20th century were used to tell
the stories of the long-standing sales icons, Rastus and Aunt Jemima, who have
been promoting pancake mix and Cream of Wheat cereal respectively for more than
100 years. Though fictitious, each was based on a real person, and both
characters appealed to consumers who would have been happy to have live-in
black servants. In the case of Aunt Jemima, her image was updated a number of
times. This was not without controversy, and black and white audiences have
identified her as personifying a number of stereotypes: the joyous slave, the
loyal servant and the natural-born cook.