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Woke Marketing: Killing Creative
For nine months last year I earned a living working in the marketing department for a large corporation. So, technically I can call myself a marketing professional. Granted I was a number cruncher, but I am starting to think the Creative departments aren’t all that more creative than the Accounting departments.
Last year we saw the Washington Redskins cave to pressure and agree to change the name of their franchise. After months of thought they came up with a new name. The football team is now called the Football Team. The goal was to come up with something that wouldn’t offend even the wokest of their fan base and in the end, they punted.
Warning: Racist Image
Now the folks at Quaker Oats have decided to change the name of their Aunt Jemima products. Evidently, white liberals don’t want to buy food that may have been touched by a Black person . . . What, is that not the reason? Sorry, it so hard to tell the difference between woke and racist these days. Anyway, the name and image on the Aunt Jemima pancake boxes are being changed. Nothing wrong with change. So what did the marketing geniuses come up with for their packaging? The Pearl Milling Company. The new packaging is just the old packaging without the smiling face of Jemima. In other words, it is boring.
Changing logos and names, for whatever reason, is a chance to get creative and come up with something new and exciting. Why isn’t that happening? In both of these cases, the name change came about by a desire not to offend. In a society that finds away to be offended by everything, that is difficult and is easier to just be boring. Woke culture is already killing comedy, now they are trying to kill all forms of creativity. Oh well, I guess I’ll just sit back and enjoy my favorite drink . . .
The Pearl River Delta is the fastest growing mega-city in China.
I presume that’s not what the pancake folk were going for, but it’s what the name evokes in my mind.
Ms. Jemima.
“You’ll want Betty Crocker in your corner when your planet is occupied by space fascists.”
Maybe it actually was.
It won’t be long before they’ll be asking why they don’t use any black people on products any more.
I’m starting to think the long-term goal is to eliminate corporate mascots completely. It is impossible to have a corporate mascot that doesn’t offend somebody.
If Queen Latifa is an acceptable title and name then why not Queen Jemima? ;)
That is because you are a racist….
Racism will never end, because too many people have an interest in keeping it going, ever churning, churning.
I should say: “Exploitation of “racism” will never end, because . . . .”
I believe racism happens in the heart, in one’s attitude toward another. Not in any external thing; nothing is inherently racist – it’s all about intent.
I knew nothing about this Uncle and Aunt business. My heart is pure. I’ve spent 64 years thinking that Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima were simply beloved figures who made some food products. They looked friendly and wholesome and appealing, which I imagined any advertising image would attempt to be. So in their case, mission accomplished.
But now I’m told that there is a whole racist thing attached to “Aunt” and “Uncle”. So am I supposed to now take on a sensibility from 150 years ago?Did the intervening 150 years not happen?
It was rough then. Right-thinking people all said there could be a better world, and they bled for it. They fought and they marched and they argued and they struggled. Every right-thinking person knew there was a wrong that needed to be made right.
And they waited. Because there is nothing that is going to heal us like time.
Well now it is 150 years later. It is an entirely different world. All this nonsense about uncle and aunt is ancient history. Like I said, in my 64 years I had never heard of that.
The waiting worked. We made it, we got here.We have infinite possibility ahead of us, everyone. We now live in a time when anybody can try to do anything. BHO tried to become freaking POTUS, and he made it! Twice!
I can walk through my day here in America, and interact with all sorts of people. My doctor. My lawyer. The grocery store checkout dude. My bank manager. My congressman (on TV). My Mayor. My boss. Maybe even my in-laws. If this person turns out to be black, I don’t register any surprise. Because, in this day and age in America, this is utterly unremarkable. The waiting paid off. How much better do you expect it to ever get? We all won.
Why are so many people, and so many black people – the recipients of this 150 years of success – determined to keep dragging up old historical references and worn-out attitudes to keep bedeviling everybody with?
My cynical answer is that they are using the issue to make money, or to accrue power over their fellow man.
Sounds like Calvin Candy.
Superb comment. Well done.
I agree. However, it seems that most black people who subscribe to this aren’t actually making any money or accruing power. I’m think of a few specific people in my life. My suspicion that propaganda works, but there’s also a possibility that there’s something else that I’m missing.
The same goes with Mia, the Land O’ Lakes Indian. The face or person sets the product apart. Look at children’s cereals and you’ll see most have a cartoon character on the front of the box.
I second that. Well said!
I do not that expanding everybody’s knowledge of racism so every slight between races no matter how small or long ago needs to be taught, blamed, relived is education.