Here’s the problem in a nutshell. If you’re a CEO of an iconic brand, do you modernize the branding of your product if it is associated with a country’s racist history? If so, how do you do this without either losing brand recognition or whitewashing the past?
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The original label |
To ensure Victorian consumers got the message that they were drinking the same treacly caffeine concentrate designed to fortify soldiers subduing the colonies, the kilted Gordon Highlander was shown being brought his drink by a Sikh manservant. [Link]
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p>Of course, times change. The sun went down on the British empire, dusky Britons moved in and took over the cornershops. They weren’t quite as fond of this label as Victorian customers were.
So, in the 1980s, a compromise was reached:
In the 1980s, the label was moved to the back and later the Sikh bearer’s tray was removed but he remained standing. [Link]
This new label was a bit bizarre. It had the Sikh servant with his fist up, like he was about to punch the Scottish officer in his face.
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The newest label |
Of course, this didn’t last either. Brown people being uppity like they are, they wanted yet more:
Recently, several Asian shopkeepers threatened to stop putting the liquid coffee and chicory concentrate on their shelves unless the label was changed. After such threats and pressure from race equality groups, the manufacturers have had the scene radically redrawn to show the two men sitting side by side. [Link]
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p>So the label was finally changed to the anachronistic image of the officer and his batman sitting down for coffee together. While this might be a useful image for today’s multicultral UK, it’s absurd to imagine that it might have happened back in the day.
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p>Now of course, the other side is crying foul:
David Davidson, Conservative MSP (members of the Scottish parliament) for Northeast Scotland, said the change was “political correctness gone mad”. He added that there was “nothing pejorative” about the original label. [Link]
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p>Actually, the image on the label is more suited to modern multicultural Britain than it might seem at first glance. To understand why, you have to look at the man on the right, the Scot. General Hector Macdonald was one of the Empire’s finest soldiers. He also may have been gay, and took his own life rather than be courtmartialed for it:
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The interim label – look at the Sardarji’s right hand |
.. while much has been written about the changing appearance of one Britain’s most enduring brands, there has been an uncomfortable silence about the British officer whose coffee break was immortalised on the bottle. The image, from 1885, of a Highland guardsman sitting outside his canvas tent far from home was based on perhaps the foremost military hero of his day – Major General Sir Hector Macdonald, scourge of Afghans, Boers and the Dervishes of Sudan.
He was the low-born soldier who turned down a Victoria Cross in favour of a commission, telling his superiors he would earn his medal later. He single-handedly saved the imperial Egyptian army from massacre.
… Macdonald, the son of a crofter, shot himself in the head in his bedroom in the Hotel Regina in Paris on 25 March 1903, minutes after reading a front-page story in the New York Herald suggesting he faced a “grave charge”. The accusation was one of homosexuality, an offence considered so serious under Victorian military law that those “convicted” were shot. In keeping with the mores of his era, Macdonald decided even the allegation was a death sentence. [Link]
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p>A fighting queer scot in a skirt, sitting down to coffee with a Sikh man who had a fist pointed at him for two decades on a coffee called “Camp” … it seems like an apt image for the modern United Kingdom to me.
Articles by Turbanhead and Manish on the same subject
UPDATE:
Here’s the image that we ended up discussing in the comments: Figurine Pillar Candleholder – India from Target
Is it because I is black?
People who use words like boot-licking are usually the ones who have a deepseated racial/ethnic inferiority complex.
There’s nothing wrong with observing how many things have deteriorated in India since independence or stating (obviously facetiously because it’s not going to happen) that the British should come back. If there were more people making the same observation, perhaps there would be more motivation around to do something about it. It’s all part of learning to be independent which is a long slow process, we’re only fifty years into it and we’ll be learning for at least another fifty.
Is Camp available in the US?
That’d be me, alright. Thanks. Hmm…. I wonder why you even bother to say “usually”.
. Facetious, my fat, ethnically inferior ass. Did you even listen to the interview, Pankaj? That dude is NOT trying to be funny.
Did we hear someone say that it’s wrong?
Now, you’re talking bro! Why can’t people just say that as a reason for the chaos? If necessary, for “motivation”, note how some things are better elsewhere or even at another time. Why wish that the British had not left? Why say India got independence too soon? For a better example, India could look to how the British governed themselves (though Jai might have a different opinion of how well that’s working out, I don’t know), not how they governed India, because, as Bidismoker noted, they needed to suppress a lot of the rights of the population to “achieve” all they did.
Jai,
I am going to order White Mughals through Amazon today. Thanks
No problem Kush, it’s a fascinating book. I’d been meaning to buy it for years and am extremely glad that I finally got around to doing it nearly two weeks ago — it’s a goldmine of information (stereotype-overturning fact after fact and anecdote after anecdote right from the first chapter) and I’m hugely enjoying reading it.
The book includes a lot of paintings (plus a couple of photographs from the later period) of “Indianised” Brits too — lots of white guys smoking hookahs, wearing sherwanis, turbans and so on. Apparently all that wasn’t regarded as a big deal at all.
I was going to tell you a few more interesting stories about early British behaviour in India — they were pretty awestruck by the Mughal Empire at its zenith when they started trading there in earnest during Shahjahan’s rule — but I decided I won’t spoil the fun for you 😉
Navratan Kurma,
Matters here in the UK are obviously a little tricky right bow, but considering the various alternatives I’m glad the British political system has evolved to the way it is today. Could be better, of course, but it could also be much, much worse.
…..Meaning, read the book and you’ll find out for yourself 🙂
Great stuff.
It is a rum notion this, this idea of the benovelent Raj. Good stuff, Colonial Jai. Capital. Quite capital 🙂
By the way, pardesi gori you’re comments on SM have made me gag many times. I wonder why someone like yourself who clearly hates everything desi would continue to post on here. Take a hike. Excellent counterpoints. Much better than the ones I came up with while half-asleep. With PG, it is either a case of not being fully informed, or a case of not wanting to be. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is the former that is case. So far, I am able to only discern interest and sympathy. In the real world, apathy is a lot more common and a lot more annoying.
That said, I think it takes a good amount of reading to really understand things like the Raj, and to fully appreciate the complexity of the background phenomena. PG, your nitpicking using anecdotal evidence sounds a bit like a kid trying to prove that the earth is flat because his school buddy told him so, and his school buddy can’t be wrong. To those who are upset, don’t be. It is sort of like discussing evolution with some conservative Christians. They may not be able to initially bring themselves to believe that it has been shown to be valid beyond reasonable doubt, but they eventually come around.
former that is case … latter that is the case.
oh that just killed me man… thanks for posting it… but i dont think he’s a bootlikcker… he just sounds like a crusty old man.
As an ad man, I hate excessive political correctness in advertising as hypocritical though I do my best to remain in compliance.
Advertising is about life, not about ideals. Our goal is to move product, not become cultural icons. One accomplishes this rather pedestrian but rather useful goal by trying to understand what people feel inside, not what they “say” they feel inside. If the majority of the target audience for a brand did feel pampered by a Gunga Din serving them, then I would say that’s the right branding for the product in any day and age. But in this day and age, I doubt that the majority of any target group, barring skin heads and Neo Nazis, would find pleasure in that kind of racial sunservience and consider it a satisfying brand experience. Hence no need for the Sikh or the master.
My point is – advertising should mirror its times and the emotions of its consumer. That’s when it works.
Oh, forgot to comment on the heading of your post – Aunt Jemima. What’s the “problem” with Aunt Jemima? She represents good down home cooking, not necessarily an African American servant. I am sure that many African Americans don’t see it that way, which makes me extremekle curious about the racial breakdown of AJ’s consumers. Don’t be surprised if doesn’t skew disproportionately white.
Methinks the whole Pardesi Gori affair is Lolita in reverse; this time it’s America falling in love with the Old World. Pardesi is very American: young, curious, may of may not be dumb but certainly not as knowing as the ancients, and just as importantly, certainly a little vulger. And she confronts the old world like an american, less interested in it’s history than where it’s going and what it can do for her. India is the ultimate self help course, better than “how to win friends an influence people.”
Of course, Nabokov was concerned about Humbert corrupting Lolita, but the corruption works both ways. Thus, the considerable umbrage on SM. No matter how old, knowing, formal, and educated we are, we are still vulnerable enough to be destroyed by a little Lolita.
Floridian:
i believe aunt jemima was originally a representaion of a “house slave.” I think it was taken from a character in a minstrel show…this is where white actors painted themselves black b/c blacks weren’t allowed to act. I could be wrong b/c i’m going from memory but i pretty sure this is the gist.
so she isn’t something most americans want to celebrate, even as a mere corporate symbol like mickey mouse.
Aunt Jemima partially explained.
Off the wikipedia entry on the Mammy archetype is a link to this article on the Mammy caricature.
Don’t you see the wonderful irony in the fact that Quaker Oats, depicting some white guy who presumably knows his oats and cereal, bought the Aunt Jemima brand? Goes to prove that marketing is totally color blind, unless color suits its purpose, of course.
I maintain that advertising has always mirrored society, and its effectiveness and relevance depend on that. The same could be said about most forms of communication – artistic or commercial – such as music, painting, poetry, literature, you name it.
Post #7 “It’s said that people who like laws and sausages shouldn’t watch either being made (the processes involved are sickening). I guess the same goes for branding.”
This quote was attributed to Bismarck. I remember it on a plaque in a sausage factory that we had as an ad account. Branding is not a deception perpetrated on humankind by shrewd marketers. Branding is an assist to what the target audience already knows or feels. Or else it doesn’t work. Why do you think 9 out of 10 products die in the marketplace despite the monumental efforts of highly educated, MBA toting marketers?
Interesting reading, Manju.
I would classify this as the formal versus informal dynamic at play. The assumption in formal situations is that “speaking without knowing” is a case of irresponsibility. The assumption in informal situations is that “speaking without knowing” is a case of innocence. I think blogs blur the line somewhat between a formal forum and an informal one. They may command a large audience and are therefore a serious setting. Everybody is welcome to comment and so are therefore a more informal democratic setting.
No matter how old, knowing, formal, and educated we are, we are still vulnerable enough to be destroyed by a little Lolita. I don’t think so. I think PG got owned. W00t, w00t!
Ummm no.
But even otherwise, their roles are quite different. In one case the rich white guy depicts either the farmer or the owner of the company. In the other, the mammy figure depicts the slave who did the cooking for the rich white guy.
Is the Aunt Jemima comparison apt? Extremely. It is even striking how similar the responses to the institutions of the Raj and slavery are for some people. “The military was in order as long as the British were in charge, when they left – chaos” is just a different way of saying “Bring back the Raj, ah, what good times they were!”. And : a different way of saying “Bring back slavery, ah, what good times they were!” is “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.” Democracy is too messy, no? To be fair, the first quote is not PG’s, but that of somebody she is quoting.
I think the issue that PG and Floridian bring up is what happens when you don’t know or care about the historical context. It’s a very american solution, come here and shed your past and start anew. don’t worry about or be burdened by history like the ancient cultures.
I have to say I’m missing the point of this obsession with the upbringing and psychology of commentor Pardesi Gori. Anyone care to explain?
About White Mughals: I have to say I think it’s much more White than Mughal and an utter yawn to boot. In my humble opinion William Dalrymple, who used to be an absolutely phenomenal writer and commentator about modern India and its roots, is heading down a blind alley. These whitey lads he writes about who had harems and dressed in desi clothes: hoo bloody ha. They just were not very interesting people unless like Dalrymple you happen to feel a sense of kinship with them. He is turning from an electric writer about modern India (City of Djinns, Age of Kali) into a positively soporific writer about late medieval/early colonial India.
Pankaj,
It’s interesting to read because it overturns a lot of stereotypes. It also acts as a sharp contrast to some of the nastier Victorian attitudes which arose later on, and which heavily influence what everyone (both Indian and British) regards as the typical mindset during the colonial period.
There’s nothing wrong with that, especially for people who have an interest in that period.
“I think the issue that PG and Floridian bring up is what happens when you don’t know or care about the historical context”
We all know all the historical contexts. My point simply is that advertising is not in the business of being politically correct. It is not journalism. If advertising crosses the line of good taste, it is immediately punished by the masses in the form of commercial failure, which so far has not been the fate of the Aunt Jemima brand. What does that tell you? Millions of people are buying Aunt Jemima, millions know what a mammy is. Are they just oblivious to American history or amoral or stupid?
It bothers me no end that throughout the evolution of the brand, the size of the tent has remained the same; it’s meant for one. When night falls, my brown brother has to sleep in the open. That’s why I’ll stick to Tea and Cucumber Sandwiches! Peace
“It’s a very american solution, come here and shed your past and start anew.”
Manju, isn’t that one of the great things about America? Cultures that carry their historical burden or wear it on their sleeves are not necessarily better.
Does anybody know Jesse Jackson’s stand on Aunt Jemima? I’d be curious to know if he has ever called on African Americans to boycott the brand.
Floridian, I’m pretty sure you didn’t read the link I gave you. They’ve completely changed the Aunt Jemima brand. She doesn’t look like a mammy any more, instead she looks like an upper middle class African-American woman of the modern era. She’s even wearing pearls.
Again, if you go to the Wikipedia page, you’ll see objections to the earlier brand image as early as the 1920s, back when lynchings were still going on.
had to put you on blast for friday: http://www.afamreport.com
great stuff for thought!
Previously we sw
Manju and others;
I just gave an anecdotal qoute. I didn’t say the majority of Indians in India feel like that. I didn’t even say the majority of Indians that I know in India feel like that. It was an anecdotal comment reflective of an attitude I’ve come across amongst some of the older generation I have met in India.
Just take it at face value.
Probably, when they reflect upon it more, there would be somethings they liked about the British Raj, and some things they didn’t. That’s the polarity of existence in this samsar duniya anyway – some good, some bad, sukh, dukh.
Regarding;
” Methinks the whole Pardesi Gori affair is Lolita in reverse; this time it’s America falling in love with the Old World. Pardesi is very American: young, curious, may of may not be dumb but certainly not as knowing as the ancients, and just as importantly, certainly a little vulger. And she confronts the old world like an american, less interested in it’s history than where it’s going and what it can do for her. India is the ultimate self help course, better than “how to win friends an influence people.”
Young? Thanks. I’m in my 30’s. Not as knowing as the ancients? You mean like Sage Vyas and Rishis Narad and Vishvamitra? You got me there!
I think there’s a class issue going on here.
My way of communicating is reflective of my environment.
I would wager a bet that more than 50% of the bloggers and commenters here on SM are highly educated and well-earning professionals placed in upper middle class neighborhoods (white, sprinkled with brown).
My background and neighborhood are different.
We are an ecclectic and creative bunch – musicians, artists, etc. But struggling financially and placed in lower income neighborhoods and ghettos where life is not PC and speech is direct and straightforward. Plus, my astro sign as Scorpio is famous for putting people off via the tongue.
Maybe too much (animosity) is being read into my comments. I’m simply speaking straight from experience. I don’t claim to be a great analyst.
My father was a young British officer in charge of a camel patrol on the North-West Frontier in the early 1930s. The soldiers were Indian. He said they camped in a communal way and although he was in charge, he didn’t throw his weight or demand special service. Bit hard to be superior when you’re being shot at by tribesmen from the rocks.
wow. it’s this kind of anecdote rather than the political rants and to and fro that really keep me loving and contributing to this site. thanks for sharing.
just curious.. anyone familiar with the sign of four. i recently saw the tv movie starring jeremy brett and thought the relationship between brit officers and the sepoys was not unfair.. but just curious how the earlier versions were presented. Any film buff in the know?
btw here’s an excerpt from the book
Rose,
That’s fascinating; I also agree with Siddhartha’s comment above. If you don’t mind me asking, what was the background of the Indian troops under your father’s command ? Does he speak any Indian languages ?
Many thanks in advance 🙂
You never know, he may have been invited to share.
PG, I think there’s a class issue going on here. Very likely, I was born poorer than you and with few opportunities. Let us not twist this around to a class issue.
Plus, my astro sign as Scorpio is famous for putting people off via the tongue. Ah, the pernicious influence of the planets! I think there is a stupidity issue going on here.
patm, You never know, he may have been invited to share. I think we now know what “Ready aye ready” means.
Austin,
Regarding my mentioning of class, that has to do with the way I present myself and the fact that some find it offensive. I’m not trying to pass the buck, but in my hood, this is how we are. We don’t pull any punches. So I think alot of the participants on this site are perhaps more vocally refined than myself. That’s what I’m getting at. Not neccessarily the poor/rich aspect, although that is a factor to presentation too, I guess.
That’s right biotch, when I was growin up we only had the 3000 BTU Jacuzzi, not livin it up like those 5000 BTU mozafuggaz. I wait nearly 10 minutes for my starbizucks, not like those pampered mofos that get it delivered. Keepin it REAL.
HMF-
Seen.
Statements like that are what make it hard to read old accounts or narratives pertaining to the Raj…of course you tell yourself that it was a long time ago, things have changed, it’s just how people expressed themselves in those days, etc….but still…you end up wanting to go kick the shit out of the guy who made the comment…
Can I just say that the large paragraph in ADDiA’s comment in #121 is very insightful?
people:
why are people attacking pg on such a personal level when you have no idea about her upbringing & background?
if you want to discuss issues or make counterpoints to her arguments, do so…
but stop with the patronizing and straight-up insulting
Dear Ennis:
May I bring the discussion back to your post, which focused on the racial slur associated with certain brands?
First of all, I was so embarrassed to have opened my marketing mouth before even reading the Wikipedia link provided by you that I decided to immediately make amends for my intellectual lethargy. So I spent a part of my lunch today walking the aisles of a supermarket looking for other non-compliant brands that deserve some serious whistle blowing.
Guess what I found as an accompaniment to our favorite Aunt? Uncle Ben’s! This elderly gentleman of African American persuasion is shown wearing a light blue jacket and a bow tie, an attire I tend to associate with African American butlers and other sundry staff in fine country clubs or expense-account type steak houses. Still giving the manufacturers the benefit of doubt, I checked Uncle Ben’s on Wikipedia and I was informed that the makers claim Uncle Ben was a rice farmer in Texas. A rice farmer dressed in a blue blazer and a bow tie?
Still smarting from this racial slur, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Mahatma Rice. Now, being a first generation Indian, I am deeply reverential towards Mahatmas of all kinds and certainly will not condone the use of this word to sell rice. What is particularly offensive is the fact that the rice people are using this word as a synonym for Indian because Indians are rice eaters. This stereotyping of Indians must stop.
Walking down the supermarket aisle, my gaze fell on another racial infraction in the marketing world. Sun-Maid raisins! The picture shows a woman presumably working on the raisin farm. So far so good, but then I looked closer at the woman. What we browns must take exception to is that this lady is obviously a Latina and since these are California raisins, obviously from Mexico, and since she is a Mexican, obviously being made to toil in the fields for far less than the minimum wage. It is a good thing I don’t eat raisins or else I will be boycotting them.
My last stop was Aunt Jemima’s, and I must say I am not satisfied with the brand update they have done to become politically correct. First of all, no middle-class African American woman is called Aunt Jemima or would like to be called Aunt Jemima. It would be similar to calling one of us Gunga Din just because that idiot poet, Kipling, put this moniker on us. Secondly, there is no pearl necklace. No way! It is a frilly, lace like collar that a good African American servant might wear serving dinner to the massuhs. The hair-do is just as sneaky. If you look closely, it is indeed hair, but if you just glance at it, it vaguely resembles the twisted cloth that is snaked around one’s head to make a turban. Very suggestive of plantation days.
My supermarket duty today did enlighten me about how these companies can do branding without ruffling anybody’s feathers. Go with animals, elves and giants. Who cares about them? They are not humans! In fact, Charlie the Tuna, Jolly Green Giant, the Keebler elf have all sold a lot of stuff.
I hope my report “from the field” has helped shed some light on the subject.
What I said was:
You said:
Look at her ears. Pearl earings, very deliberately put there.
Here is the Aunt Jemima story.
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=1353&si=126