Popeyes Chicken Lady Analysis

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Ever wondered why a lot of food commercials and cleaning products have black woman as the face of them? It isn’t merely because these women just got lucky and landed a mainstream commercial, they were chosen for a particular reason. It’s the fact that their black and they give off the perfect Mammy persona.Mammy is a term that originated in the post slavery era. It was used in relation to the house slave that tended to the master, his children, and his wife. The name expanded and became a postmark label for black women that took care of everyone. Some have argued and said that it is almost impossible to create any type advertisement in the country without someone taking it into offence.One would think that considering the fact that those incidents …show more content…

At first glance no one would think there would be any derogatory undertones. However when you look closely and start to look deeper into it on begins to question the motives of the creators of the commercial. The CEO of Popeyes is Cheryl Bachelder she could have easily been the one to be the face of her product but the company chose to have a black woman be the face of the product. “Annie the Chicken Lady” was introduced in 2009. The marketing officer said that the idea of “Annie” was to have a honest, vibrant, youthful, and authentic woman to advertise the product.But considering the history with southern women and the position they held in the kitchen it is clear to see why the company would have a black woman the their spokesperson. Black woman are typically associated with being good cooks so by letting “Annie” be the face of the product gives off the persona that the food has to be good because all black women are chicken experts,right?

The Pine Sol Lady is another example of the Mammy portrayal in the media. Many argue and say that they wanted their spokesperson to look like the woman that use the product. Middle aged house women. Others argue and question why the woman has to be black when black women aren’t the only women that use household cleaning products.Even by taking a look back on some movies one can