Revered Vermont institution Ben & Jerry’s found itself in the news today, and not for its yummy, creamy treats: The company filed a lawsuit against the producer of the “Ben & Cherry’s” series of pornographic films. Each title in the X-rated series is, you guessed it, a parody of a B&J’s ice cream flavor. The New York Daily News has the scoop, along with some potentially not-safe-for-work photos (although the scandalous bits are blacked out) (not talking about the photo of Ben and Jerry themselves though).

The socially conscious Vermont company is suing a California smut peddler that blatantly ripped off its logo for X-rated DVDs.

…

An unprintable title drawn from the flavor Banana Split features two bare-chested women on the cover.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan Federal Court demands the porn be taken off the market and seeks unspecified damages.

Unprintable? What prudes you are, New York Daily News.

Anyway, one wonders if Ben & Jerry’s has a leg to stand on, given that some of their real-life flavor names are, well, kinda scandalous. (Yes, that includes Clusterfluff, which could probably be the title to a very fascinating porno but was later changed to What a Cluster.) Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all, and those Häagen-Dazs people can only wish that there was anything sexy about their treats.

And now, a game: We’ve listed ten names below. It’s up to you to decide if each one is a Ben & Jerry’s flavor or a porno flick. The answers are listed after the jump. Ready? Go!

  1. Americone Cream
  2. Schweddy Balls
  3. Chubby Hubby
  4. New York Super Fat and Chunky
  5. Late Night Snack
  6. Berried Treasure
  7. Hairy Garcia
  8. Peanut Butter D-Cups
  9. Karamel Sutra
  10. Boston Cream Thigh

And now, here are the answers. If you managed to get all ten correct, treat yourself with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s tonight — or with a smutty film, if you’d prefer. We won’t ask.

  1. Porn flick
  2. Ben & Jerry’s flavor
  3. Ben & Jerry’s flavor
  4. Porn flick
  5. Ben & Jerry’s flavor
  6. Ben & Jerry’s flavor
  7. Porn flick
  8. Porn flick
  9. Ben & Jerry’s flavor
  10. Porn flick

Photo credit: Don.chulio at the German language Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2012.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Tyler Machado was the digital media manager at Seven Days. He mostly worked behind the scenes making sure the website, email newsletters and social media feeds stayed in tip-top shape.

4 replies on “Quiz: Ben & Jerry’s Flavor or Porn Flick?”

  1. To be fair, if you’re not paying close attention to capitalization, #1 is both a Ben and Jerry’s flavor and a porn flick.

  4. I get the trademark issues involved here, and I understand B&J’s legal position. Fair enough.

    But on a personal level? I’m not feeling much sympathy for poor Ben and Jerry. They’re publicity whores. Always have been. They’ve built their enormous wealth on publicity and publicity stunts and on ice cream flavor names that many would consider to be vulgar or at least in very poor taste. They totally built their brand over 20 years ago by attacking Haagan Dazs. Then, it was, “What’s the Pillsbury Doughboy afraid of?” And please — whatever you do, don’t get between Ben Cohen and a camera, a microphone, or a soapbox. But now, someone is using their brand in a creative rip-off and they don’t like it. Boo hoo. Fact: the pornsters are probably doing B&J’s a favor, and B&J’s is only adding to their publicity bump by filing the lawsuit.

Comments are closed.