"For most Americans the smiling visage of Uncle Ben was a familiar sight at the grocery store, but most people never thought twice about who the man himself was. Food mascots are always tricky because outside of the obvious case of cartoon characters, you never know whether they were actually real people."
"That may come as a surprise because for years many publications included Uncle Ben in lists of food brand mascots who were based on real people. That wasn't just speculation, as Mars, the owner of the popular instant rice brand, claimed for years that Uncle Ben was a real African American rice farmer known for the quality of his rice and that the brand had been named after him."
Food mascots can blur the line between fiction and reality, with some brands using invented personas while others reference real people. Examples include the fictional Betty Crocker and the real Chef Boyardee (Boiardi). Mars long claimed Uncle Ben represented a real African American rice farmer whose name symbolized quality, even though the company never said he owned any part of the business. Mars admitted the box image was a painting of Frank Brown, a Chicago waiter, but continued to assert a real namesake. The 2020 George Floyd protests intensified scrutiny of such mascots and prompted changes to the brand.
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