Ben & Jerry’s Gay Marriage Backlash Begins
All the Unilever-owned ice cream maker wanted to do was show its support for Vermont’s newly legal same-sex marriage (and drum up major free publicity) by renaming flavor “Chubby Hubby” to “Hubby Hubby,” but now Ben & Jerry’s finds itself being attacked for its marketing advocacy. The world is unjust!
The ice cream label should stick to doing what it does best — providing calorie-heavy comfort food in adorable little containers — rather than enter the fray of politics, argues Oliver Thring, a food writer for Britain’s The Guardian, who returned from vacation to pen this:
Ben & Jerry’s make an excellent product. We like it. So much so, you may remember, that we sent Vicky Frost along to the company to develop a Word of Mouth ice cream flavour a few months back, and much fun was had. The company was founded in the hippest hippy traditions, far-out and right-on, and the takeover by Unilever seems scarcely to have undermined this.
And though I agree with their sentiment, it’s a gloopy business when a company celebrates the election of a president with the flavour ‘Yes Pecan’. In an age when ice cream companies are melting away and reforming as purveyors of frozen yoghurt, is this dinky piece of homespun cheeriness really the best focus of the company’s efforts?
That gay people should be able to get married seems to me a basic human right, and I admit that in a completely partisan way I was tempted to justify B&J’s action as part of the ongoing struggle against ignorance and fear. But what would I be thinking if a contrary point of view was being aired? I’d be first in line to denounce them as squalid influence peddlers, shamelessly meddlesome, shiveringly undemocratic tricksters.
Ice cream should be a relief from side-taking. It soothes and softens, comforts and consoles. B&J’s sentiment is noble, but the side of a half-gallon tub is no place to daub political slogans – it’s a distraction from the guzzling pleasure.
Us? We just think Mr. Thring is jealous of Americans: Chubby Hubby was only briefly available to the Brits, but they’ve gone without since 2002. Grapes, much?
did you read the article? it actually agrees with the companies sentiment and is actually posing a question about whether or not its good for food businesses to make political statements. So calling it a backlash is pretty lazy journalism
I TREATED 6 OF MY CO-WORKERS TO BEN AND JERRY’S HUBBY HUBBY.
It sure was worth of my goddamn money. All of them now support the gays.
You CAN win people over via good food and an filled stomach. I would continue to support businesses like BJ’s Hubby-Hubby.
One of my friends gave this ice cream to her co-workers (up in Jersey) and they are now so fat that they can never vote for gay weddings or nothing.
FAIL.
@Edd: Agreed. A distortion in the interest of pageviews.
@Smelda: Huh? Go distract yourself with something shiny.
I love that B&J are supporting gay marriage!
I hate that people OF COURSE have to over react and be ridiculous.
Can’t everyone just do their own thing in the world?
oliver is obviously a closet case!!
I live in MI, a pretty homophobic state, and after the name change all of a sudden (big surprise) the formerly ‘Chubby Hubby’ is NOWHERE to be found at any of the grocery chains I frequent. This level of homophobia is just so stupid (especially as that B&J flavor is my favorite and I can no longer get it!)
And yet people hardly say anything about Oberweis. That company mixes hate with ice cream like hot fudge and bananas in a split.
@Edd:
Lazy journalism on Queerty…shocking.
@Edd: Lazy, senationalist “journalism” on Queerty since the current webmaster took over? I’m shocked!
Didn’t Ben & Jerry’s also have ads supporting gay marriage on the New York City transit system?
B&J are not entering politics by celebrating same sex marriage. It’s only the homophobes who define a pro gay stnce as taking a side. If B&j had put a het couple on their label and called it wifey hubby, it would have been noted as just a marriage themed label and not controversial at all. So basically Oliver needs to learn a thring or two about the gay rights movement prior to putting his words out there.
I think he was bringing up the argument against renaming Chubby Hubby to Hubby Hubby because all the NOM women don’t have a hubby at all. He’s out in those sex clubs getting it up the poop shoot. They need to turn to something to get their feelings soothed since they aren’t getting dick from their actual husband.
the way the author says “the gays” belies his bias.