9 Really Weird Things We Found in Our Archives

June 5th, 2017

The Best Stuff’s Way in The Back

We recently did some end-of-the-year cleaning in our archives and — whoa — we sure found some strange stuff! Not surprisingly, there was a lot of dust, a few melted ice cream puddles, a loose dog or two, and more piles of photos and old tubs than we can shake a cone at. (And we may have seen Ben napping in the corner. We can’t be sure.)

When we finally emerged — sweaty, disheveled, and craving a bowl of Half Baked — we brought a few odds and ends with us (and yes, maybe some of them were stuck to our sticky shoes like toilet paper after a bathroom break). Check out this totally weird, completely random collection of oddities dug from the depths of our archives:

  1. First Logo

    Is that a . . . piano?! Yes, yes it is. Back in the first Scoop Shop in Burlington, Vermont, the co-founders had an old salvaged player piano. At the time, it seemed like the basis for a great logo. 

  2. These Old Things

    Our pals across the pond may remember these bad boys. Brownie, ice cream, more brownie. All packed up in a neat little sandwich. If only our time machine wasn’t on the fritz . . .

  3. Woodstock For the Ice Cream Crowd

    Over in the US, we used to host our very own music and ice cream festival every year, called Chunk Fest. Maybe you were there hanging out in the back with a cup of Cherry Garcia? Yeah, we thought you looked familiar.

  4. Get Up, Fall Down

    Way, way back in the first few years of the first Scoop Shop, the co-founders would organise a street party called “Fall Down” each fall. It was weird and wild all around: frog jumping contests, apple peeling contests, fire eating, jugglers, and more ice cream than anyone could handle.

  5. Why Was It So Surprising?

    When we launched our sorbet line in the US, we knew it would be a big deal. People couldn't get enough of those sharp and fruity flavours!

  6. Toeing the Line

    Keeping with our long custom of incredibly odd, off-the-wall contests (ahem, see #4), this Sundae on the Common event featured a toe wrestling championship. Only non-stinky feet may apply.

  7. Who Even Are You?

    When we launched our Phish Food flavour in 1997, a lot of people outside Vermont (and outside the jam band scene) didn’t get the joke. Were our spell checkers on holiday? Was the ‘F’ button on our keyboard broken? We had to set everyone straight, and introduced a whole lot of music heads to this iconic band in the process.

  8. Bob Gets a Job

    When Bob Holland was head honcho at Ben & Jerry’s in the mid-1990’s, we had a bit of fun with this contest. Employees submitted their funniest enhancements to this sketch of Bob, and the best entries could win a can of SPAM Lite, an Etch-a-Sketch, and a whole lot of other weird stuff. (See? We totally have a thing for weird contests.)

  9. Swapping Lids (And Not the Kind That Go On Your Head)

    We’re not sure what precipitated this odd event, but the deal was that you were supposed to save your Ben & Jerry’s tub lids, bring them to this swap, and trade with other swap-goers until you had a set of 10 different flavours. And then a coveted Ben & Jerry’s t-shirt was yours! Would you go if we had one in your city? 

Now that we’ve gotten all the cocoa dust off our clothes and peeled the old photos off our sticky shoes, we can safely go get that bowl of Half Baked. All this archive-hunting sure is hard work!