Good Humor Man Serves Up Flavorful Rap in Ads
Date: 05-13-1996

Publication: USA Today

Author: Bruce Horovitz 

The Good Humor Man is alive, swell -- and rappin'. The white-uniformed man who drove the square ice-cream truck is no longer a fleeting memory. He comes to life this week singing a rap song in an ad that breaks on the heels of ice cream's hot season. At stake is a lot more than smiling faces dribbling Chocolate Eclair bars. By putting a human face on the Good Humor Man, 75-year-old Good Humor-Breyers -- which is owned by Unilever -- hopes to cement its top ranking in the $10.5 billion-a-year ice cream world. Good Humor-Breyers revenue exceeded $100 million last year. The company also owns Popsicle and Klondike brands. The company decided to put a human face on its icon after surveys showed almost everyone has a Good Humor Man story, says Dick Newman, vice president of marketing. The company will pump a record $7 million into the campaign, nearly 50% more than it's ever spent. Don't mistake this Good Humor Man for the disheveled guy who might have driven the truck years ago through your neighborhood. (Although the company still licenses out the use of its name to 500 drivers nationally, most of its sales are at the store.) The Good Humor Man of the '90s is a 27-year-old hunk whose song-and- dance routine helped him beat out 500 others who auditioned for the gig. ``I´ve been a Good Humor Man in spirit all my life,´´ says Robert Gant, who never actually drove a Good Humor route. When Gant was 13, he broke into show business by performing a soft- shoe routine with Bob Hope at a USO show. Instead of dancing on to Broadway, however, Gant hit the books and took a job at a Los Angeles law firm. But he left law to pursue an acting career. ``Now, I´ve got the sweetest job in America,´´ Gant says. This summer, Gant plays an ancient Olympian in a Hanes TV spot in which he appears with Michael Jordan. And the cartoon face of Disney's animated movie Hercules character due out next summer is being partly modeled after Gant's face. Industry analysts give thumbs-up to Good Humor's new campaign. ``We´re a country perpetually living in the past,´´ says Howard Waxman, of the Ice Cream Reporter. ``Why not bring back a strong image from the past?´´

Bruce Horovitz, Good Humor Man serves up flavorful rap in ads. , USA Today, 05-13-1996, pp 06B.