Okay, I admit my headline is a little unfair, but I thought it would get your attention.
If you're an old cuss like me, folks like Aunt Jemimah, Uncle Ben, and Funny Face were part of the accepted landscape.
Yes, racist charactures sure helped move the merch--and a lot of us never said a peep. I remember the Frito Bandito raising some hackles, and that was a fairly recent protest. In fact, a few of these folks still sit on the shelf today.
It's truly amazing how the pedulum swung in the last 40 years or so...from a time when advertisers painted with broad, stereotypical strokes to make us buy pancake mix, converted rice, corn chips, and many other products too numerous to mention.
Read more about our racist Madison Avenue past right here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2164062/nav/tap1/
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