Vermont ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s drew the ire of the political correctness brigade when they released “Hazed and Confused,” a concoction of chocolate and hazelnut deliciousness.
Part of their new Core series, “Hazed and Confused” is injected with a chocolate, hazelnut, fudge core.
“Hazed and Confused” being a play off the hazelnuts and famed Led Zeppelin song “Dazed and Confused.” “Dazed and Confused” was also an early nineties movie that gave us Matthew McConaughey, and is therefore one of the best movies in existence.
But back to the ice cream. In typical political correctness fashion, everyone who interprets a name, title, or anything else in a self-involved manner has the right to demand the rest of the world cede to their personal point of view. According to Bloomberg News:
Ben & Jerry’s won’t rename its “Hazed & Confused” ice cream, defying anti-hazing activists who complained the moniker was insensitive to victims of the dangerous college tradition.
The company found nothing in its marketing for the chocolate and hazelnut flavor that “condoned hazing, supported hazing, or even inferred hazing,” said Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for the South Burlington, Vermont-based company, which is owned by Unilever NV. (UNA) Executives also took into account that Internet responses were mostly favorable, he said.
“It didn’t make sense for us to change the name,” Greenwood said. “We named it because it’s a pop culture reference.”
A couple who lost their son to hazing at a college campus were outraged that the ice cream maker would name a product after the sometimes dangerous activity:
The ice cream had been on the market six months without an objection before Lianne and Brian Kowiak of Tampa, Florida, and their allies spoke up. Their 19-year old son, Harrison Kowiak, died of a head injury during a fraternity “hell week” hazing ritual at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, in 2008. The Kowiaks sued for wrongful death and won an out-of-court settlement. Harrison Kowiak was a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fan.“The company completely avoided and didn’t take into consideration what are the unintentional implications of this chosen name,” Brian Kowiak said in an interview following a call he had yesterday with officials at Ben & Jerry’s.
And StopHazing.org had this to say and were even kind enough to offer their assistance in renaming “Hazed and Confused”:
Since Ben & Jerry’s is a “values-based company” and (according to their formal response) agrees that “hazing and bullying have no place in society,” we see an opportunity for the company leadership to act with integrity and rectify this issue. Words are hollow without actions to back them up. If “hazing has no place in society,” why should it have a place in our ice cream cones?
We at StopHazing love ice cream and want to continue to enjoy Ben & Jerry’s with a good conscience. Please don’t disappoint us. Ben & Jerry’s, we ask you to maintain our confidence in your forward-thinking company by using this as an opportunity to educate the public about the problem of hazing and to move quickly to find a new name for your hazelnut ice cream. We would gladly offer you our assistance in making these adjustments and informing your consumers.
Ben and Jerry’s finally issued the following statement:
After the complaints, the company condemned hazing and later said it would consider changing the name. The company received 11 complaints, which were mostly e-mails, said Greenwood, the Ben & Jerry’s spokesman.
“The flavor Hazed & Confused and Ben & Jerry’s as a company in no way condone –- nor support in any manner –- the act of hazing or bullying,” the company said in a statement at the time. “Ben & Jerry’s believes that hazing and bullying have no place in our society.”
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