From Breakingviews: Companies can go first on reparations, writes rob1cox
Bottles of Aunt Jemima branded syrup stand on a store shelf inside of a shop in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, U.S., June 17, 2020.
PepsiCo’s decision this week to put the Aunt Jemima brand to rest is a good starting point. The 131-year-old pancakes and syrup business, whose name is derived from a 19th century minstrel song, for years used the marketing image of a former slave to perpetuate the stereotype of a black woman happily serving up breakfast to white children. Not anymore.
A 2014 lawsuit filed against Pepsi by plaintiffs who claimed to be descendants of Nancy Green, who was born in slavery in Kentucky in 1834, or other women whose likenesses were used to market Aunt Jemima products, tried to do that. They argued they were owed $2 billion in unpaid royalties and a share of future profits. The suit was thrown out by a Chicago court in 2015.
Consider a hypothetical example. Assuming a brand made $500,000 from the 1920s - the era when Quaker bought Aunt Jemima - and grew 5% annually for 100 years, sales would have reached around $800 million in 2020 dollar terms. A 2% royalty over that same period would be roughly $16 million a year today.
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