Uncle Ben’s rice gets change in name, packaging
NEW YORK — The Uncle Ben’s rice brand is getting a new name: Ben’s Original.
Parent firm Mars Inc. unveiled the changewednesday for the 70year-old brand, the latest company to drop a logo criticized as a racial stereotype. Packaging with the new name will hit stores next year.
“We listened to our associates and our customers, and the time is right to make meaningful changes across society,” said Fiona Dawson, global president for Mars Food, multisales and global customers. “When you are making these changes, you are not going to please everyone. But it’s about doing the right thing, not the easy thing.”
Several companies have retired racial imagery in recent months, a ripple effect from the Black Lives Matter protests over the police killing ofgeorge Floyd and other African Americans.
Quaker Oats announced in June that it would drop Aunt Jemima from syrup and pancake packages, responding to criticismthat the character’s origins were based the “mammy,” a blackwomancontent to serveherwhitemasters. Quaker said packages without Aunt Jemima will start to appear in stores by the end of the year.
“It’s a chain reaction of sorts and it’s really good and interesting to see somuch introspectionbeing done in these companies to change the trademarks that they’ve invested in,” said Riche Richardson, an associate professor of African American literature at Cornell University, who called for Aunt Jemima’s retirement five years ago in a New York Times opinion piece. “There is a challenge for some people in letting go of these images because they wrongly link them with a sense of Black identity and empowerment when in reality these images have never empowered Black people.”
The owner of Eskimo Pie has also said it will change its name and marketing of the nearly centuryold chocolate-covered ice cream bar.
B eyond food brands, thewashington NFL franchise dropped the “Redskins” name and Indian head logo amid pressure fromsponsors including Fedex, Nike, Pepsi and Bank of America.
Mars had announced in the summer that the Uncle Ben’s brand would “evolve.”
Since the 1940s, the rice boxes have featured awhite-haired Black man, sometimeswith a bowtie, an image critics say evokes servitude. Mars has said the facewas originally modeled after a Chicago maitre d’ named Frank Brown. In a shortlived 2007 marketing campaign, the company elevated Uncle Ben to chairman of a rice company.
Dawson said months of conversations with employees, customer studies and other stakeholders led the company to settle on “Ben’s Original. She said the company is still deciding on an image to accompany the new name.
Mars announced several other initiatives, including a $2 million investment in culinary scholarships for aspiring Black chefs in partnership with the National Urban League.
It also is planning a $2.5 million investment in nutritional and education programs for students in Greenville, Miss., the majority African-american city where the rice brand has been produced for more than 40 years.