[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Maybe you don’t buy it at all – but tell someone else who does. And the point of this wasn’t to make yoy buy Cherry Garcia – it was to make you buy Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. …at some point, you will say to yourself, “I feel like some ice cream. Where should I go?” And one of the locations on that list is Ben and Jerry’s.
[/QUOTE]
It’s a pleasure to share a board with people who pay attention. As noted, Cherry Garcia has been around for years, and it would be silly to promote it specifically at this late date (the flavor combination of cherries, grass, mud and patchouli really isn’t for everyone anyhow). I’d bet that, even with all the symbolism and plot development given to the flavor, the name Ben & Jerry’s was, audibly and visually, far more prominent.
When you sell candy, you might have a premium or famous product or two that carry you, and you push them. Watch candy commercials: they’ll sometimes mention the manufacturer’s name, but they feature the name of the candy. Partly this is because candy is pretty much always sold alphabetically by product name rather than segregated on the shelf by manufacturer or main ingredient; ice cream is usually marketed very differently – outlets that sell generally do shelve a particular makers’ products all together instead of, say, putting all the maple walnut in one spot, and, since so few manufacturers even go to the trouble of naming their various lines distinctively, it’s impossible to do it that way (of course, outlets that sell and serve either make their own or are contractually committed to only one brand anyway).
With ice cream, you’re selling, first, the idea that it’s worth it to get off the sofa and go get some, and second, whose ice cream base is of the finest quality, because individual flavors are as unimportant as the toppings you might stir into your sundae. Think for a minute of how many ice cream commercials you’ve ever seen that talked about how their cocoa beans, or vanilla beans, or butterscotch recipe, or strawberry source, was the best. Then think about how often you hear the words “creamy,” or “rich,” or “satisfying” – words that apply to the base itself. All they want is a positive association with the manufacturer’s name. They couldn’t care less if you hate strawberries, are allergic to peanuts, or think chocolate is a nefarious plot. The only thing I’m surprised about in this commercial is that it got so specific about a single flavor. But since Ben & Jerry’s names all it’s flavors anyway, they probably figured there was no additional disadvantage to doing so. At that point, the advertising agency probably chose on the basis of three questions: (1) Which flavor is easiest to identify with Ben & Jerry? (2) Which flavor name lends itself to the most entertaining narrative for a commercial? (3) How much would it cost to hire the appropriate spokesmen for Ben & Jerry’s Vermonty Python? Once (3) had been answered in the prohibitive, the choice was obvious.