Don’t flip. Claims that Quaker Oats is bringing back Aunt Jemima originated as satire.

Did people get so fired up over flapjacks that a company flip-flopped? 

"Breaking: Quaker Oats bows to backlash, brings back Aunt Jemima: ‘Aunt Jemima is back!’" read the caption on a Nov. 7 Facebook post. The post includes a picture of a pancake syrup bottle with the old Aunt Jemima branding and a photo of the late Nancy Green, a formerly enslaved woman hired in 1890 to play the role of Aunt Jemima.

The post linked to an article that said, "Quaker Oats has officially reversed its decision to retire the Aunt Jemima brand, bowing to what company insiders describe as ‘unprecedented backlash’ from pancake lovers everywhere." Several other posts made the same claim; some got more than 100,000 likes. 

But don’t get sticky with misinformation — this claim originated as satire.

(Screenshot of Facebook post)

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Quaker Oats announced in 2020 that it would change the name of the Aunt Jemima brand, which included products such as syrup, grits and pancake mix. The company faced criticism that the character featured on the bottles was based on a racist stereotype about Black women. In 2021, the Aunt Jemina brand became Pearl Milling Co., named after the original mill in 1889 that produced the brand’s self-rising pancake mix. 

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America’s Last Line of Defense, a known satire page with the disclaimer, "Nothing on this page is real," made a similar claim about Aunt Jemima’s purported return Oct. 20: "Boycotts Work! Quaker has announced that Aunt Jemima will be back on syrup bottles in 2025: ‘Our customers have spoken.’" America’s Last Line of Defense’s creator, Christopher Blair, has told PolitiFact that the company’s parody aims to fool conservatives with fake stories most people would find absurd.

SpaceX Fanclub, another satire account, posted a similar claim Nov. 2.

Although the Aunt Jemima story started as satire, the claim spread across Facebook and X without any disclaimer. PolitiFact has fact-checked numerous claims that have originated on SpaceX Fanclub  and America’s Last Line of Defense that spread without users knowing it was satire. 

PolitiFact found no evidence in press releases or news archives that Quaker Oats, or its parent company PepsiCo, announced a return of the Aunt Jemima branding.

We rate the claim that Quaker Oats is bringing back Aunt Jemima branding because of backlash False.