Photos: New Blue Bell Commercial Points Out Competitors' 'Shortcomings' Playfully

Photos: New Blue Bell Commercial Points Out Competitors' 'Shortcomings' Playfully

BRENHAM, Texas, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Ice cream lovers are facing a sad new fact of life in the grocery store. Some of the top-selling ice cream companies in the country have reduced the size of the classic "half-gallon" container. The first reduction was from the full 64-ounce half-gallon to 56 ounces. Now they have reduced that 56-ounce carton even further to 48 ounces, a full pint less than the original half-gallon. Needless to say, the price of the shrunken "half-gallon" has not been reduced.

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Blue Bell Ice Cream, the number three best-selling branded ice cream in the country, is still offering a full half-gallon of ice cream for the price of a half-gallon -- a contrast pointed out gleefully in a new 30-second television commercial which will debut in most Blue Bell markets on June 16.

"Can you imagine if they started making shorter rulers?" the new spot begins, with video of a handyman scratching his head because the two-by-four he just cut doesn't fit. "Or made shoe sizes smaller?" the voiceover continues, with video of a woman trying to cram her foot into a shoe that doesn't fit. "Or saved money by turning big screens into little screens?" the voice goes on, over the image of a man squinting hopelessly at a TV screen on his wall that is about the size of the average framed photograph.

Next we see a puzzled woman in a supermarket turning a carton of ice cream sideways, surprised at how narrow it is. "Or reduced a carton of ice cream by as much as a pint!" says the voiceover. Finally, the satisfied buyer of Blue Bell Ice Cream regards his full half-gallon of Homemade Vanilla with pleasure. "So don't be a pint short of a half-gallon. Take home all you pay for," admonishes the voiceover.

The commercial ends with a close-up of the carton which now has a graphic across the front reading, "Still a 1/2 Gal (2 QTS)." The text under the carton says, "The Little Creamery with the big cartons," and the audio concludes, "Blue Bell wouldn't have it any other way."

The new commercial is the first created for Blue Bell Creameries by Roger Christian & Company, an advertising agency in San Antonio. It is also one of the first new Blue Bell commercials that is not directly or indirectly derived from the work of Texas advertising genius Lyle Metzdorf, who developed all Blue Bell advertising for 33 years, from 1969 to his untimely death in 2002.

"My purpose," explains Roger Christian, "was to take the look, style and feel that Lyle Metzdorf established so beautifully over the years and carry that forward. However, most Blue Bell commercials traditionally have been institutional, focused on brand building. This one has a specific and timely message, much in keeping with Blue Bell small-creamery values -- that the customer should get what he or she pays for."

Roger Christian graduated from the University of Texas in 1971, and has had his own San Antonio-based advertising/public relations firm for the past 27 years. Prominent clients have included Coca-Cola, Minute Maid, Burleson's Honey and Armed Forces Entertainment, in addition to Blue Bell. His work has won numerous awards. He has also assisted local and national chapters of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation since his niece was diagnosed with the disease 17 years ago.

This Blue Bell commercial, and two other new spots created by Roger Christian, were filmed at locations in and around Brenham, Texas, and produced by longtime Blue Bell television director Jerry Cotts of Satellite-X, Inc., in Santa Monica, California. The voiceover talent for the spot is Harlan Rector of St. Louis, who has long "voiced" Blue Bell radio jingles.

Other talent in the spot includes Bo Myers, Carol Farabee, Tim Mateer, Cinetrea Grace and Mark Nutter. Pics in a Row of Los Angeles provided editing for the spot; Margarita Mix, also of Los Angeles, recorded and mixed the audio; and Beacon Street Studio of Venice, California, provided music.

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Video:

http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/bluebell/33619
Source: Blue Bell Creameries

CONTACT: Patricia Bernstein, +1-713-838-8400,
pbernstein@bernsteinandassoc.com, for Blue Bell Creameries

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