The story sounds too silly to be true. This is 2020, however, and that means a butter label is under fire for a “stereotypical” image. Sorry, Mia, you’re out of here.

Land O’ Lakes decided it is time for a makeover for its butter packaging. The image of the Native American woman, named Mia, that adorns the label in native attire is a stereotypical image that is no longer acceptable. Mia is the company’s butter maiden. She has been a symbol of the company for almost 100 years since it was founded in Minnesota in 1921.

I buy the brand and after reading about this decision, I went to check the package that is in my refrigerator right now. My Land O’ Lakes package looks like it always does with Mia on it. I will now be more observant and notice how long it takes for the new label to be in circulation. Frankly, before today I had no idea the young woman was named.

The Native American maiden, named Mia, first appeared on Land O’Lakes packaging in 1928, seven years after the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association was founded by 320 farmers in St. Paul. Arthur C. Hanson, who was the first illustrator for the ad firm Brown and Bigelow, came up with the original design evoking rural Minnesota with a blue lake, green pine trees and a Native woman in a buckskin dress and feather headdress.

Since then, the packaging changed twice, once in 1939 and a second time in the 1950s when Patrick DesJarlait, an Ojibwe artist, was hired to revamp the depiction, according to a student-run blog of Villanova University’s History Graduate Program.

Land O’ Lakes is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative that produces butter, cheese, and other milk products. The new packaging will reflect the “farmer-owned” aspect. The new front of package design includes the words “Farmer-Owned” above the brand name and will include pictures of farmers and co-op members on the label. “Since 1921” will appear under the brand name.

From the company’s press release:

Land O’Lakes was founded by a group of Minnesota dairy farmers in 1921, and as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2021, the co-op has reflected on its treasured history and made the decision to showcase its greatest strength—its farmers.

“As Land O’Lakes looks toward our 100th anniversary, we’ve recognized we need packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture—and nothing does that better than our farmer-owners whose milk is used to produce Land O’Lakes’ dairy products,” said Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O’Lakes.

“As a farmer-owned co-op, we strongly feel the need to better connect the men and women who grow our food with those who consume it,” Ford said. “Our farmer-to-fork structure gives us a unique ability to bridge this divide.”

Over the past few years, Land O’Lakes has launched a number of marketing initiatives to better tell its farmer-owned story. Specific to the Dairy Foods business, the company partnered with country music star Maggie Rose in a remake of the classic song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” The remake, called “SHE-I-O,” featured Land O’Lakes member farms in Rose’s music video. Member farms and farmers have starred in several other videos highlighting the strength of the cooperative model and centered around the Land O’Lakes’ tagline, All Together Better™.

“SHE-I-O”? Do only female farmers produce the butter now? Or, like in some romantic languages, does butter have a gender identification now? It all seems a bit much, but I’m not in marketing. The new packaging is expected to be fully rolled out by the end of the year. Stick butter packages will reflect the new packaging this spring and summer.

The Native American woman in the picture above is North Dakota Rep. Ruth Buffalo. She has long criticized the label as being racist and stereotypical. She goes even further and links the image to going “hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls.… by depicting Native women as sex objects.” Ms. Buffalo is a registered member of the Mandan, Hidatsa Arikara Nation, and is from Fort Berthold Reservation.

“Yes, it’s a good thing for the company to remove the image. It’s kinda like with land acknowledgments, it’s a good gesture and a step forward. But we can’t stop there. We as a whole need to keep pushing forward to address the underlying issues that directly impact an entire population that survived genocide,” Buffalo said.

That’s quite a leap. And, you can see, it’s still not enough. There is always more on the agenda of the politically aggrieved.

2018 annual sales are reported to be $15 billion for the company. Changing the label will likely not matter to most consumers. The change was quietly made in February, with the press release not even mentioning the “butter maiden”. Seems like that should have been mentioned in the official remarks from the company as a part of the decision-making process. I mean, if a company is going to cave to silly political correctness shouldn’t they at least officially own that decision for the reason of the new look?