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Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is turning a cold shoulder to all of those people who are not happy with the name of its new flavor of ice cream called Hazed and Confused.
For those people who are not up on their pop culture references, the name is a take off of Dazed and Confused, an expression made famous by a Led Zeppelin Song back in the 70’s. It was also used as the title of a 1993 movie about high school kids in that era from director Richard Linklater which featured future stars like Ben Affleck and Mathew McConaughey.
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If you like chocolate then you will probably like Hazed and Confused as it consists of fudge chips and a hazelnut fudge core. The core is where they got the idea to use the word hazed in its name.
So what’s the problem? How could that name be controversial? It’s not like the racially insensitive nicknames of any American professional and college sports teams.
Apparently some people think that it is wrong to use the word “Hazed” in the name of an ice cream because it is too similar to the term “haze” which refers to the mistreatment of high school and college students by their peers.
But Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t see it that way. Company spokesman Sean Greenwood told Bloomberg, “It didn’t make sense for us to change the name. We named it because it’s a pop culture reference.”
Greenwood also said that his company sees nothing in the new flavor’s name that in any way condones or promotes the practice of hazing.
He also told the Huffington Post, “The ice cream contains hazelnuts, so it was always meant as a pop culture reference to Dazed and Confused. Not a lot of words rhyme with hazelnut.'”
The flavor was released by Ben & Jerry’s back in February and so far they have received only eleven complaints about it.
“Ben & Jerry’s believes that hazing and bullying have no place in our society. No individual, group, or entity should benefit by marginalizing others, ” said the company in a statement.
