Beanie Babies, Pogs, The Spice Girls, Tickle Me Elmo, Pokemon. Like every phenomenon to hit pop culture in the age of the internet, everyone’s trying to cash in on Jeremy Lin, and Jason Whitlock’s not the only one getting Lin trouble.
Today, ESPN scooped a sweet story on ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s and a questionable ingredient choice for their newest flavor of frozen yogurt, “Taste the Lin-Sanity.” Trying to one up the New York Knicks team graphic staff, the ‘tangentially-but-not-really-connected-to-Harvard’ company put fortune cookie pieces into vanilla fro-yo with a honey swirl — a unfortuneate attempt to cash in on #Linsanity that has now backfired.
The company has offered this apology:
“Our [l]intention was to create a flavor to honor Jeremy Lin’s accomplishments and his meteoric rise in the NBA, and recognize that he was a local Harvard graduate… We try (to) demonstrate our commitment as a Boston-based, valued-led business and if we failed in this instance we offer our sincere apologies.”
Ben & Jerry’s, as a terrible pun aficionado, I see what you were trying to do. You’ve been one of my favorite bougie ice cream pints to chow down on for a while, but this is Linsensitive! Linsane! Did you even file for a trademark on Linsanity? Dubious. Doubtful.
And seriously, Fro-Yo? Jeremy’s playing so many minutes these days that he doesn’t need a low-cal substitute for the real thing. If anything, he can afford to pack on a few extra pounds. Next time, at least put your linjudicious ingredient choice in some ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s: You’re Lin Trouble.
Word.