ETHNIC

Today's New York Times has a fascinating Business section cover story on Mars company's effort to reintroduce Uncle Ben's rice and side dish products to the American consumer. The article points readers to a new website, unclebens.com, where the company has repositioned Uncle Ben as the chairman of the company.

I explored the site and found a calendar on Ben's executive office desk that has him speaking to the National Institutes of Health and meeting with a Senator You-Know-Who on a Friday in March.

It is a notable transformation of a brand character that has always carried with it the baggage of racial insensitivity that has also been associated with the brand and other brands such as Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup.

The Times was right to front-page this story. As advertising reporter Stuart Elliott writes in the story:

"The previous reluctance to feature Uncle Ben prominently in ads stood in stark contrast to the way other human characters like Orville Redenbacher and Colonel Sanders personify their products. That reticence can be traced to the contentious history of Uncle Ben as the black face of a white company, wearing a bow tie evocative of servants and Pullman porters and bearing a title reflecting how white Southerners once used ?uncle? and ?aunt? as honorifics for older blacks because they refused to say ?Mr.? and ?Mrs.?

Before the civil rights movement took hold, marketers of food and household products often used racial and ethnic stereotypes in creating brand characters and mascots.

In addition to Uncle Ben, there was Aunt Jemima, who sold pancake mix in ads that sometimes had her exclaiming, ?Tempt yo? appetite;? a grinning black chef named Rastus, who represented Cream of Wheat hot cereal; the Gold Dust Twins, a pair of black urchins who peddled a soap powder for Lever Brothers; the Frito Bandito, who spoke in an exaggerated Mexican accent; and characters selling powdered drink mixes for Pillsbury under names like Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry ? the latter baring buck teeth."

This will certainly add a new layer to the discussion I initiate with students in my ethnic marketing course at Johns Hopkins University.

Click [here] to read the NYT article.

Source/History: "The classic dish, Pad Thai is artfully created in this reduced calorie version. Chicken, shrimp and bean sprouts mingle with linguine and cilantro in this restaurant favorite." Yield: 4 servings

Source/History: "My mother used to cook this for us all, usually to go with Sunday dinner. I was hooked. Haven't had it in ages and I was wanting to bake something special for a special someone so I asked mum for the recipe. Tried it out today, and it's just as I remember. The thing that makes it for me is the frangipane. Hope you like it as much as me." Yield: 8 servings

Excellent English education poster potted in my school hallway:


(Click here to zoom in.)

The poster's text:
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I CAN SMELL FREEDOM!

Frame 1 [two turkeys talking]

TURKEY 1: Hey, Paul!

TURKEY 2 (PAUL): Huh?


Frame 2[T1 pointing to a massive wall]

TEXT: WHAT A WONDERFUL WALL!

T1: Look! There's a world of freedom over that wall.

PAUL: Really? Awesome! It's like the Berlin Wall! Cool. man!


Frame 3 [both turkeys leaping over massive wall]:

SAID TOGETHER: Wow! We're free!


Frame 4 [both turkeys pressing faces to ground out of gratitude]

SAID TOGETHER: I can smell freedom!


Frame 4 [turkeys gazing at campus-type building in the hazy distance]

PAUL: You know what? I think I'll take the Eiken test and then study abroad in Australia!

T1: Sounds great!

PAUL: I'm gonna give it a shot. You should try, too!!

TO BE CONTINUED

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I can honestly say that I wish I had made the text up, because that would mean I was responsible for the copy of one of the greatest posters in the history of man.

My good friend Jason Ho (of Sushi Time and The Whale fame) just left Japan for America.

I wrote him a silly song. But, he's a video guy, and video guys deserve video gifts.

So, I borrowed a little snapshoot digicam and rallied the local Japanese-Peruvian Elementary Student Hip Hop Dancing Superpal...

...and we made this for him.

(Vimeo.com link here)

Like most going-away gifts, a bit hard to understand if you don't know the recipient personally. But I feel confident you'll enjoy the dancing.
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NOSTALGIC BONUS BEAT:
Me and my little drum-machine-keyboard-thing once did the music for a Jason's Pachinko Parlor commercial demo:





Maruhan Demo Commercial on Vimeo

Additions Rose Restaurant Grill Kabob Express Yas Bakery, and Gourmet Groceries Bebo Trattoria da Roberto Donna Mandu P.S. 7?s Bob's 88 Shabu Shabu Trying new food Updates Cho Cu Saigon (photos) Korean B-B-Q Grill (photos) Thai X-ing Please note that...

Rose Restaurant, 126 W. Maple Avenue, Vienna, VA, 703-255-9696 or 703-255-2557 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [Falls-Church News Press | Chowhound] Yes this is from the folks who brought you the old Café Rose, in Falls Church....

Yas Bakery, and Gourmet Groceries, 131 A West Maple Avenue, Vienna, VA, 703-242-2800 or 703-242-4050, across from Magruder?s, not easily visible from the street. (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [insider pages] I don?t usually cover ethnic groceries,...

Source/History: "My mom bugged grandpa for this recipe but he told her he didn't have one. So, when he made the bread one day she captured each ingredient in a bowl and measured it and put it in the bowl he planned to mix it in!" Yield: 1 loaf

Grill Kabob Express, 11213-J Lee Highway, off Rt.29, Fairfax, VA, 703-569-7259 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [Yelp | Yahoo] I like their buffet better than their kabobs. Good chick peas, spinach, bread, tasty rice, fresher vegetables than...

Regular readers all know that I'm in constant awe of my students' writing.

A female student of mine recently wrote an impromptu review of the 2005 movie 'The Brother's Grimm'. I reproduce it here, in it's entirety (with slight spelling/grammatical corrections):

The Brother's Grimm isn't so good.

[The] picture is very beautiful and [there's] a romantic atmosphere. But [the] main actor isn't so handsome... and baldness.

[He] has a large forehead.

I can't get excited at this movie.

That's the kind of direct, honest, writing I want to see, in class or out. Main stream movie reviewers take note.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN AMERICA: Heath Leger is probably crying a little.