Land O' Lakes and The Portrayal of Native- Americans in The Food Industry

 

         For this culture jam we took the brand of popular butter products labeled Land O’ Lakes, and changed the name to “Stolen Land O’ Lakes.”  We also incorporated a colonial pilgrim saying, “This is our land” directing this statement towards the Native American female. We added this character because, as most people know, overtime the pilgrims stripped the indigenous people of their native land, and reduced their population to a minimum with the “white” man in majority. The original label displays a young woman in traditional Native American attire, implying that Native Americans 1. All appear this way today and 2. That Native American’s live in vast, nature enriched areas with lakes and forest. We added the term stolen because the first Americans took Native Americans from almost all land that originally belonged to them, but continue to use the stereotypical Native American on multiple logos beyond Land O’ Lakes butter, to provide some sort of authenticity as if Native Americans still own vast amounts of land throughout the United States. Through food advertising Native Americans are continuously portrayed as primitive people in a modern society and are objectified as a brand as opposed to a culture and group of people.