Posted: 02/28/07

A sweet tooth for “truthiness”
Ben & Jerry’s releases a new flavor: “Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream”

Emma Long | copy editor
elong@smcvt.edu

Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report is joining the Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and Jerry Garcia in freezer shelves nationwide – in the form of Ben & Jerry’s new flavor: Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream.

The inside scoop

The ice cream flavor, which is vanilla with a caramel swirl, riddled with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces, is what Ben & Jerry’s calls “the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth.”

Ben & Jerry's, now owned by the major corporation Unilever, worked alongside Colbert and his group at Comedy Central, and decided to put out the new flavor.

“We had so much fun with his [Stephen Colbert’s] group,” says Eloise of Ben & Jerry’s consumer affairs, who would not release her last name.

“Stephen is very popular, and very different from the past people we’ve chosen,” she says.

The flavor decision at Ben & Jerry’s involves several people and different stages in the process, says Rob Michalak, Ben & Jerry’s director of ‘public elations’ as the company refers to it.

“Generally, the marketing team will be the arbiters of what flavors eventually come out,” Michalak says. “It will involve research and development, also known as R & D – or around here, Bizarre & D,” he says.

The R & D squad works in the Ben & Jerry’s test kitchen, and members are “the people who are paid to play with their food,” Michalak says. Although the executive management calls the final shots on new flavors, marketing teams, which include a broad base of people, provide the input needed to get the taste just right.

With Americone Dream, Stephen Colbert “joins a long and distinguished line of unique celebrity flavors: Cherry Garcia, Wavy Gravy, Phish Food, Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies,” Michalak says. “Each one brings unique character attributes to the Ben & Jerry’s line-up.”

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen could not be reached for comment.

A fair and balanced freezer

In a statement published in an Associated Press release on Feb. 14, Colbert responded to his new flavor by noting, “I’m not afraid to say it – dessert has a well-known liberal agenda.”

“What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case,” he said in the release.

Ben & Jerry’s is known for its progressive product, economic, and social mission, and therefore recognized Colbert as a worthy personality for its pints. With his often biting satire of conservative America, Colbert has become a nationally recognized and widely appreciated icon.

On the Ben & Jerry’s Web site, co-founder Jerry Greenfield states the similarities between Colbert and Ben & Jerry’s.

“He’s about political activism, so are we. He stands up for what he believes in, so do we. He supports Bill O’Reilly...and we think he has a right to his opinion,” Greenfield said on the site.

“Colbert is known for his irreverent humor, as is Ben & Jerry’s,” Michalak says. “His popularity and style of social commentary seemed to make a nice fit for something new and exciting.”

Americone Dream, and Colbert in general, have drawn much Internet attention, particularly in the online blogging environment. One contest, led by monkeytypesthebible.com, promised four free pints to the person who came up with the best name for the rumored new flavor before it was introduced. A blogger from bestweekever.com posted, “Ben & Jerry + Stephen Colbert = Win!”

Every year, Ben & Jerry’s brings out four to six new flavors in a pint container, says Sean Greenwood, head of Ben & Jerry’s public relations.

“Some of the flavors are intended to be around for a year, like last year’s American Pie. Some are limited batch flavors intended to be around for less than a year,” he says. “If the trial flavors are received well, then we consider rolling them into our permanent line-up.”

The ‘truthiness’ of Colbert

Colbert introduced the now widely-discussed concept of 'truthiness' on his premiere episode of The Colbert Report on Oct. 17, 2005. The word was a 2006 Merriam-Webster word of the year, and is defined as "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true."

During his speech as the featured guest of the April 29, 2006 White House correspondent dinner, Colbert’s underlying truthiness appeared to offend some of the crowd, as he voiced satirical praise of President Bush and the Republican Party as a whole. He made mention of Bush’s low approval rating, saying, “guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in ‘reality.’ And reality has a well-known liberal bias.” During the speech, President Bush appeared expressionless, and several of his aides walked out of the room.

The negative response to Colbert’s speech was highlighted in Richard Cohen’s May 4, 2006 article published in The Washington Post. The columnist cited Colbert as a “representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country,” and described his jokes as “lame” and “insulting.”

Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), quoted in the May 3 edition of The Hill, a newspaper dedicated to congress issues, described Colbert as having “crossed the line” and said that as president, George Bush “deserves some respect.”

“Apparently [Colbert] was under the impression that they’d hired him to do what he does every night on television,” said Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart during his May 6, 2006 episode of The Daily Show, which precedes the Colbert Report in the late-night line-up.

Despite negative reactions to Colbert’s White House speech and The Colbert Report in general, the comic satirist continues to draw fans. UVM junior Kirsten Leavitt, a political science major and Middle-Eastern studies minor, says she likes Colbert’s act.

“He plays the role of conservative America, so he makes us aware of their viewpoints, but also allows us to laugh at how ridiculous some of their opinions really are,” she says. “He shows us how the liberal opinion is viewed from a conservative’s standpoint. I think Stewart/Colbert 2008 would be a good balance in The White House,” she says, and jokingly encourages voters to write the comedians in.

St. Michael’s College sophomore Caroline Maider recently attended a taping of The Colbert Report in New York City, and enjoys watching his show when she can.

“At the taping, he was so nice to the audience and fielded questions,” she says. “You could tell he was really into audience reactions.”

When can we get a taste of Americone?

With the promise of proceeds from Americone Dream, Colbert founded the Stephen Colbert Americone Dream Fund, which will distribute the profits to various charity efforts, such as help for veterans and their families, the environment, and food and medical assistance for disadvantaged children, according to the Ben & Jerry’s Web site.

That he is donating the profits to charity is “something that ties in with our social mission as well,” Eloise says.

Americone Dream is starting to hit shelves now, Michalak says.

“It will take a little while before it reaches freezer shelves nationwide, filling out the ‘pipeline’ across the country. It’ll probably be late March or into early April when it’s in the majority of the stores,” he says.