To celebrate its 65th anniversary, Baskin-Robbins has retired five of its 31 signature flavors to make room for more innovation. The “retirement party” took place late last week as the five flavors were sent to the “Deep Freeze.”
The five retired flavors are French Vanilla, which has been around since 1945, Caramel Praline Cheesecake (1970), Campfire S’mores (1975), Apple Pie a La Mode (1976) and Superfudge Truffle (2007). A Facebook group, “Save Baskin-Robbins’ French Vanilla from the Deep Freez,” has already sprung up in protest. Although the group founder is not listed, our guess is that it is an overweight man, presumably a die-hard Farmville fan and living in his mother’s basement. (This just in: he might also have diabetes.)
In a statement, chief brand officer Srinivas Kumar says, “Over the decades we have retired some of our iconic flavors into our Deep Freeze – like Miami Ice from the 1980s and Beatlenut in the 1960’s – but never before have five flavors gone into the Deep Freeze at one time. By retiring these great flavors we are marking Baskin-Robbins milestone birthday celebration but also making room in our flavor library for new flavor innovation.”
In an advertising campaign dating back to 1953, a local agency named Carson-Roberts (which eventually merged into Ogilvy & Mather in the early 70’s), encouraged Baskin-Robbins to showcase 31 flavors, thus giving them a competitive edge over rival Howard Johnson restaurants, which only sold 28 flavors, and gave consumers a flavor-a-day for an entire month. (How American of them.)
The new flavors have not been announced yet, but being that we all know that July is National Ice Cream month, go out and treat yourself to a cartoon. And add some hot fudge. And caramel. And marshmallows. Oh, and definitely some crumbled Oreos. Why not some Butterfinger bits too? It’s what a true American would do.