Häagen-Dazs Responds To Ben & Jerry’s Email
March 9, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Last week we posted the snarky email message from Ben & Jerry’s making fun of rival Häagen-Dazs’ supposed redefining the pint as 14 oz. rather than 16 oz.
Read: Who’s Phonier? Haagen-Dazs? Ben & Jerry’s?
Being openly criticized on the immeasurably powerful FranchisePick.com blog obviously sent shockwaves through the factories to the boardrooms of Häagen-Dazs.
And rightfully so.
Today, we received this response to Ben & Jerry’s email from an obviously shaken Häagen-Dazs:
You may have seen a recent message from Ben & Jerry’s calling out our decision to downsize our Häagen-Dazs cartons.
While the reality is that size sometimes matters, we continue to believe that quality matters more.
Our ice cream is created with only a few select, simple, all-natural ingredients.
That is why we searched six years for the perfect variety of strawberry for our Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream and why we paid four times more over the last two years for the raspberries that make it into our Häagen-Dazs raspberry sorbet.
And we wouldn’t think of soaking the raisins for our Häagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream even a minute less than the 60,480 minutes (42 days, actually) that they currently luxuriate in their rum baths.
Why not? Because then it just wouldn’t be Häagen-Dazs. Call us obsessive. But we’re that serious about our ice cream. We hope you’ll continue to make it your ice cream.
Thank you for giving us a chance to respond.
While not trashing Ben & Jerry’s ice cream directly (that would be poor form for the refined and umlauted ice purveyor) the response definitely casts doubt as to Ben & Jerry’s commitment to quality rather than quantity.
It makes one wonder:
- Is it better to have 14 oz. of select, simple, all-natural ingredients than 16 oz. crammed with shards of heath bar, brownies, marshmallow and peanut butter cups?
- Do Ben & Jerry’s raisins luxuriate in rum baths for 60,480 minutes (42 days, actually)? If not, how long DO they luxuriate?
- How exactly are Ben & Jerry’s “fudge fish” harvested, and does Greenpeace approve?
The scoop has been thrown down once again.
Ben? Jerry? What do you have to say for yourselves?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
Image: Häagen-Dazs
14 ounces isn’t a pint, no matter how you look at it, and no matter if you’re measuring metric or English or whatever.
Still, I like the differing opinions, and for me, I’ll stick with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Americone Dream, here I come :)
Though those Haagen Dazs almond ice cream bars are might good too.
Read the ingredients in Americone Dream, Phil. It contains Bamboo pieces and other “invented” items like guar gum. These two may be natural, but not in my ice cream.
Mr. Dazs,
Guar gum is all natural and comes from a bean. Please next time do a little research before posting.
Ben and Jerry’s used to be a quality product before they were bought out by Unilever. That’s when they started adding all the fillers that made the product go quality go downhill.
I used to purchase either Ben/Jerry’s or Breyers exclusively. Then one day, I noticed that the product was no longer the same. It never really froze like Ice Cream is supposed to. It had a weird, foamy texture that made it have the same mouth feel as the lower quality brands. That’s when I stopped purchasing Ben/Jerry’s and went just for the Breyers.
A few years later, I noticed the same drop in quality in Breyers. Turns out that Unilever bought them out and started adding the fillers to that product as well. Fortunately, a local brand, Turkey Hill carried a line called “Philadelphia Style” as a knockoff of Breyers. Ironically, it is now the better quality product.
This week, I was lucky enough to find Haagen Dazs “Five”. Each flavor is made of only 5 quality, all natural ingredients with, best of all, NO FILLERS!!! It freezes solid like Ice Cream should. It has the mouth feel of REAL ice cream. Little flecks of ice, not mushy foam.
If I want to buy into some marketing ploy that is supposed to fit into some “lifestyle”, I would buy Ben/Jerry’s. If I want REAL, high quality Ice Cream, I’ll buy the Haagen Dazs.
I always like how people get swayed from what the original point is. From what I read, Ben and Jerry’s point was that Haagen Dazs was basically lying about the SIZE of what constitutes a pint. Somehow in Haggen Dazs response to Ben and Jerry’s they bring up the quality. I’m not taking sides here as I like both brands equally but I would suggest that Haagen Dazs figure out exactly how many ounces are in a pint and stick to the original debate here. And as far as Haagen Dazs’s stupid comment about how people are more interested in quality versus quanity, how dumb is that? We want QUALIT and QUANITY and a good price!!! Yes of course, we want it ALL!!!!
gregg:
What’s really funny is that Ben & Jerry’s slyly gives the impression that Haagen-Dazs is trying to pull a fast one. In reality, Haagen-Dazs didn’t call the 14 oz. container a “pint.” Furthermore, they announced the change in advance via press releases and on their website.
Click the link above “Who’s Phonier? Haagen-Dazs? Ben & Jerry’s?”
But you’re right about the response being off-target. They should have pointed out B&J fabricated the controversy… but they are no match for Ben & Jerry’s in the cleverness department.