Pepsi owner claims ‘no merit’ in billion-dollar Aunt Jemima battle

The owner of soft drink Pepsi and The Quaker Oats Company have claimed there is “no merit” in a $2 billion lawsuit levied against it by the heirs of a woman whose image was used on one of its brands.

In a statement, PepsiCo said that although it could not discuss details of the impending lawsuit it believes there were no grounds for the complaint.

As WIPR reported yesterday (August 11), the dispute started when the heirs of a woman whose image was used on the ‘Aunt Jemima’ brand of pancakes claimed they were due unpaid royalties from PepsiCo and The Quaker Oats Company.

D.W Hunter—the great grandson of Anna Short Harrington, whose image was used on the products’ packaging—claimed his family was due $2 billion, plus further damages to be determined at trial.

Hunter claimed that The Quaker Oats Company, later acquired by PepsiCo, had selected Harrington for the ‘Jemima’ character in 1935 because of her own pancake recipe which they then reproduced as well as “exploiting” her image and recipe for profit.

In 1937, the company registered a trademark for the brand as well as Harrington’s likeness but the family did not discover the registration until last year, the complaint said.

The lawsuit further alleges that Harrington was dissuaded from using a lawyer so that the company would not pay her a percentage of sales from her recipes and image.

Speaking to WIPR days after news of the lawsuit broke a PepsiCo spokesman added: “people associate the Aunt Jemima brand with warmth, hospitality and comfort, and we stand by this heritage as well as the ways in which we do business”.

Harrington died in 1955 but Quaker Oats then sought out her youngest daughter Olivia Hunter in 1989, ultimately using her likeness to update the appearance of ‘Aunt Jemima’, the complaint said.

US-based Pinnacle Foods Group and The Hillshire Brands Company, which sell Aunt Jemima products under license, are also targeted in the lawsuit.