Life Magazine Ad for Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix September 1941

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Imagery is predominate in this advertisement. First of all the black woman, Aunt Jemima, which appears as the dominant figure, larger in size than all of the other characters in the ad. Giving her somewhat of an authoritarian voice/ opinion about what she is cooking. She appears overseeing the food that is distributed to the white family, because technically she is the one cooking for the household. This portrait of Aunt Jemima provides the reader with a sense of warmth, safety and reliability that she will serve you well and provide good food, as depicted in the comic illustration of the various family households in society at that moment in time. In contrast the different representations of a white family are represented smaller but they are the ones that emphasize the value of the product. Except from Aunt Jemima, the second dominant picture in this advertisement is the pancakes. Obviously this is because the pancakes is the product advertised for sale. The image of warm-butter melting, tasty good looking pancakes makes the reader want to immediately purchase the product and cook it at home. The use of font and typography is further used to emphasize the name of the product. Besides Aunt Jemima the headline “I’se in town honey!” is written in big font and with bright orange color this indicates the culture and education of Aunt Jemima and further stereotypes her role. Underneath the headline the words “Aunt Jemima’s” and “secret recipe” are underlined because they are the basic idea of this advertisement. This changes in font and typography highlight to the reader the brand of Aunt Jemima and what the “mammy” figure represents. Moreover, there are certain phrases/words in bold inside the texts in the speaking bubble of the characters. Such as “Aunt Jemima” and adjectives to describe the product’s features “light, fluffy, digestable”. This bold phrases catch the readers attention and emphasize the value of the product. Making it appear desirable and lure the audience to try and buy the product because of this certain features.

This advertisement would cause severe judgment and a negative response if it was featured in a magazine in todays society. It would be a very sad state of affair if we continue to persist such the imagery of women being oppressed on all levels of racism, classism, sexism. Although, it is still prevalent today, at least society is aware and continuous to combat such oppressive ideologies. Not only the language that is used but also the imagery of the “mammy” is what makes this ad so offensive. It is so offensive that it would cause rival especially from the black community. There is offensiveness in the language and the phonetics used, there are certain stereotypes used for black people from the south and the assumptions that if you acquire this traits you also fit into the category of servant and uneducated. This advertisement portrays the black women as only a servant for the privileged white families and her only purpose is to adhere to their needs. This ad despite seeming joyful and happy actually portrays all of the stereotypes of the time making it a very sexist and racist. Today this ad wouldn’t serve it’s purpose of promoting the product and making it desirable to the audience but it would actually make the product despicable by many.

This advertisement focuses on promoting Aunt Jemima’s pancakes and tries to make the reader buy this product. This is achieved by the combination of visuals and text, the use of literary devices and vocabulary. This advertisement despite seeming harmless and with the aim just to serve advertising purposes hides many of the stereotypes of the early 1940’s in the United States.

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