|
|
gretriever
Hipster Doofus
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jul 2003
Posts: 19385
Location: A moving target in a firing range.
|
| Back to top
|
|
 Posted: 04/25/05 - 07:53 Post subject: Great moments in marketing.
Wrong and fubby. At so many levels. From the Chicago Tribune
----------------------------------------------
IT'S ALL IN THE NAME
Does Chicago want Dave Matthews' Magic Brownies for dessert?
By Phil Vettel
Tribune restaurant critic
Ben & Jerry's recently unveiled its spring line of flavors, and the makers of Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia have introduced a new taste that's likely to be a hit -- except perhaps in Chicago.
Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies.
For those who recall the incident of last August, you have to think that everyone involved -- ice cream maker and band members alike -- could have picked a less-disquieting flavor.
It was Aug. 8 when a bus driver, transporting the members of the band, dumped the bus' septic tank while driving across the Kinzie Street Bridge, dousing a tour boat's passengers with human waste. (The bus driver pleaded guilty last month.)
Now the band was very cooperative with the investigation and donated $50,000 to the Friends of the Chicago River and $50,000 to the Chicago Park District before the driver's guilty plea.
They're not the bad guys.
Even so: Magic Brownies?
"Oh my God, you're right," said Lee Holden, multi-mediologist (that's what the business card says) for Ben & Jerry's, when reminded of the septic tank incident. "I don't think that ever occurred to anybody."
The product consists of vanilla ice cream with fudge brownie chunks and raspberry swirls. The choice of flavor was coordinated between the band members and Ben & Jerry's, apparently long before the Kinzie Street Bridge incident. Indeed, the partnership between the two has been ongoing for several years; the Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies flavor replaces One Sweet World, a flavor named after one of the band's eco-friendly tunes. One Sweet World was a coffee-based flavor mixed with mocha swirls and fudge chunks. So it could be argued that Magic Brownies represents progress.
But couldn't they have gone with a nice raspberry sorbet instead?
|
