B. Smith becomes face of Betty Crocker Cornbread

For as long as I can remember, my mom has preferred Jiffy cornbread (whenever she has been disinclined to make cornbread from scratch). To be sure, Jiffy has long held sway over black consumers. Perhaps due to its sweet and "down-homey" taste. Or maybe just because the box advertises "cornbread" rather than "corn muffins."

Eager to lay claim to black consumers (and just in time for the holiday season), General Mills decided to "blacken" their Betty Crocker cornbread mix (formerly known as corn muffin mix) by adding cook show diva B. Smith's face to their product. Now I know what y'all are thinking: modern day Aunt Jemima. And you're not the only one who has made this connection. "B." contests this ready association between herself and Aunt Jemima in an interview with NPR's Farai Chideya. But what do we make of the almost intuitive move by GM to harken back to the image of a black woman--cooking with a smile--as a way to promote the "authenticity" of their cornbread mix?

While former model turned restaurateur B. Smith is not a caricature, like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, does GM's marketing strategy really differ from the R.T. Davis Milling Co.? Granted, B. Smith is getting paid better for her image, but like Nancy Green (the real woman behind the Aunt Jemima product), B. provides a "living trademark" to promote GM's product, a trademark that evokes similar associations in the American imagination. Otherwise B. wouldn't have to defend herself against the Aunt Jemima image.

At the same time, the success of GM's marketing strategy could suggest that black and white consumers alike find comfort in this iconographic figure. Perhaps the image goes beyond southern nostalgia to embrace some sense of "home" or a longing for conventional performances of mothering. Yet black women tend to get fixed in these roles. To be sure, B. Smith is exercising her freedom to market her brand as she chooses, but I think we would be remiss not to read the circulation of black female bodies critically, especially in the American marketplace (also see my earlier piece on the continued marketing of the mammy image).