Ben and Jerry came here in 1995 to promote Chubby Hubby and its cosmic connection to York
The Brazil nut, right, is an ingredient in Ben & Jerry’s Rainforest Crunch ice cream.That flavor played a role in the creation of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby brand, ice cream made of pretzels and chocolate and who knows what else. Chubby Hubby had is beginning in York, Pa. (Click on photo to enlarge.) Also of interest: Baltimore screamed for York County ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s issuance of pro-gay marriage flavor Apple-y Ever After serves as a reminder of a moments when the Vermont ice cream maker used its marketing prowess to promote another brand.
This one involved York and the aptly named Chubby Hubby ice cream as summarized in the following from York Daily Record/Sunday archives with my additions in parentheses:
” ‘This crazy idea came from two folks from Pennsylvania,’ states the carton of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream. That’s York, Pa., to be exact. Wendy Gohn and Theresa Pratt (of Precision Components Corp.) dreamed up the chocolate- and pretzel-filled flavor as a practical joke on a co-worker (Tom Santacroce) who loved Rain Forest Crunch. When he couldn’t find Chubby Hubby in stores, they made up a batch of the fictional flavor for him for Christmas. Ben Cohen had a taste of the homemade concoction when he spoke at York College in 1992, and two years later, Gohn received a message on her answering machine: ‘This is the marketing director for Ben & Jerry’s. This is not a joke. Please give me a call.’ The flavor unveiling in March 1995, complete with a parade down Market Street, left Cohen and Jerry Greenfield enamored of York. ‘We’ve never been to a flavor rollout that matched York County’s unveiling,’ they wrote in a letter to the Daily Record. ‘… I guess you can say we’ve been ‘Yorkafied.’ They came back in September to be the grand marshals for the Harley-Davidson night parade. Now the new CEO of their company (Perry Odak, who lived in Spring Garden Township’s Brockie Mansion) hails from here. Coincidence?”
Which leads to my favorite quote from those days that Ben & Jerry’s appealed directly to the York County sweet tooth:
“Between Chubby Hubby and Perry,” said Ben & Jerry’s spokesman Lee Holden, “we have quite the cosmic connection with York.”
Also of interest:
Beck’s Ice Cream in The Avenues feeds your sense of discovery about York County, Pa.
