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Ben & Jerry's Hubby Hubby

Cause Branding | Brand Marketing

OVERVIEW

Ben & Jerry’s worked closely with Cone to help celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage in Vermont with the symbolic renaming of its well-known ice cream flavor “Chubby Hubby.” On September 1, 2009, the flavor was temporarily christened “Hubby Hubby” and sold in Scoop Shops throughout Vermont for the entire month. The campaign was designed to raise awareness for marriage equality, in partnership with Freedom To Marry.

PROGRAM ELEMENTS

Cone created a traditional and social media campaign surrounding the renaming of Ben & Jerry’s iconic flavor by leveraging a political milestone to foster dialogue around marraige equality and promote a call-to-action. To establish credibility, Ben & Jerry's brought in third-party organization Freedom To Marry, a New York-based nonprofit who promotes marriage rights nationwide.

RESULTS

Extensive media coverage and brand awareness included:

  • More than 1,600 media placements reaching 430MM consumers
  • Mentions on late night shows including “The Jay Leno Show,” “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien”
  • Increased sales of “Chubby Hubby” within two weeks of launch
  • 919 new signers (45% increase) of Freedom To Marry’s Marriage Resolution since September 1
  • Increased Freedom To Marry Web site traffic
    • 15,439 visits from September 1-8 (720% increase)
  • 35,000 tweets
    • Mashable called the campaign a “social stir”
  • 7% increase in Facebook fans of Freedom To Marry
  • 1,905 blog visits (137% increase in traffic) to Freedom To Marry blog