Most of you have probably never heard of Anna Short Harrington, but you've seen her. You've seen her youngest daughter, too, though you probably never realized that either woman was anything more than an advertising graphic.
Anna Short Harrington was the face of Aunt Jemima from 1935 to 1989. In 1989, Quaker Oats decided that it needed to update Aunt Jemima's "look" and asked Harrington's daughter, Olivia Hunter, if she would be the model for the new image.
As of August 2014, Harrington's great-grandson, D.W. Hunter:
has filed a $2 billion dollar lawsuit against Quaker Oats, PepsiCo, Pinnacle Foods Group, and The Hillshire Brands Company for using his great-grandmother’s image without “equitable fair share of royalties.”
After Harrington took on the role of the Aunt Jemima character in 1935, her likeness was used by the companies, and a trademark was registered for it [in 1937]. The lawsuit alleges that even though Harrington’s image was used for Aunt Jemima, the companies denied that she was ever an employee and exploited her image and recipes for profit.
Hunter also alleges that the company lied when claiming it could not find an employment history for Harrington or images of her, since they trademarked her image. According to the law suit, the company also exploited the image of Harrington’s daughter as well.
Source
Identities.mic continues the story:
The 108-page complaint, filed by Hunter on Aug. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, specifically calls out alleged discrimination by PepsiCo, Pinnacle and Quaker Oats, according to Fortune magazine. The companies were party to repeated instances of "racial discrimination towards Anna S. Harrington's heirs … reflecting an innate form of disrespect towards African-American people."
From the Wrap: "The suit further alleges a racial element to the exploitation of Harrington and the other women who portrayed Aunt Jemima, going so far as to accuse the company of theft in procuring 64 original formulas and 22 menus from Harrington. It further alleges that Harrington was dissuaded from using a lawyer, exploiting her lack of education and age, so that the company could not pay her a percentage of sales from her recipes."
Harrington's family is seeking not only compensation for the use of Harrington's image, but punitive damages for racial exploitation. I hope they win on both counts.
