User:Inkian Jason/Breyers
| Product type | Frozen dessert |
|---|---|
| Owner | Unilever |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1866 |
| Previous owners | Kraft Foods Inc. |
| Website | breyers |
Breyers is an American ice cream brand created in 1866 by William Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By the 1920s, the brand was producing more than 1 million gallons annually. It was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation in 1926 and again in 1993 to Unilever, which merged it with Good Humor to form the Good Humor-Breyers division. Breyers was noted for advertising its use of natural ingredients.
History
[edit]
The Breyers brand was created in 1866 by William Breyer, who made ice cream in his kitchen and sold it from a horse-drawn wagon in Philadelphia.[1] By the time of his death in 1882, he had opened six shops in Philadelphia while still manufacturing the ice cream in his home.[2] In 1896, Breyer's sons Fred and Henry opened the first manufacturing facility for Breyers ice cream, incorporated the company, and began using the briar leaf in the company logo.[3][4] The company opened its second facility in 1904 and became the first to use brine-cooled freezers the following year. By 1914, Breyers Ice Cream Company was selling one million gallons of ice cream annually. The company opened additional plants in Long Island City, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, in the 1920s and became a subsidiary of the National Dairy Products Corporation (NDPC) in 1926.[5] NDPC sold the brand to Kraft in 1952.[5] In 1969, Breyers became part of Kraftco, the precursor company to Kraft Foods, Inc., and began being sold in the southeastern United States; sales extended west of the Mississippi River in 1984.[3]
By 1986, Breyers was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States. Its expansion into California was met with consumer confusion due to the similarity in name with Dreyer's, the most popular ice cream brand on the West Coast. Breyers' advertisements stressed that its name started with the letter "B" and noted differences in ingredients between the two products, including that Dreyer's used corn syrup and color additives while Breyers did not.[6] Breyers' carton branding had drawn many imitators, leading to a redesign in the 1980s to make its cartons black with images of the product.[7]
Unilever purchased Breyers ice cream in 1993 and merged it with Gold Bond and Good Humor ice cream to create the Good Humor-Breyers division. Kraft retained the rights to produce Breyers-branded yogurt.[3][8] Unilever closed its last Breyers plant in Philadelphia in 1995.[5] In 2007, Unilever moved the Good Humor-Breyers headquarters from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Toronto and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.[9]
Unilever closed a Breyers production facility in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2011.[10] A facility manufacturing Breyers-branded yogurt in North Lawrence, New York also closed that year.[11]
In 2015, Breyers stopped using milk from cows treated with the hormone recombinant bovine somatotropin and began using vanilla from Madagascar that had been certified as sustainably sourced by the Rainforest Alliance.[12]
Social media posts in the 2010s and early 2020s, as well as a New York Times column by Dan Barry,[13] circulated about some Breyers products being labeled "frozen dairy dessert" rather than ice cream, leading to questions about the ingredients in the products. The labeling difference was due to butterfat content in the products. Regulations in the United States and Canada require products with less than 10 percent butterfat to be labeled as frozen dairy dessert.[14][15]
Marketing campaigns
[edit]In 1989, Marine Midland Bank launched the Breyers Visa credit card aimed at families with young children. The cards launched simultaneously with the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals telethon that year, as well as advertisements in newspapers, People, and TV Guide. Breyers committed US$2 for every account opened during the campaign.[16] Bernadette Peters starred in a series of Breyers commercials in the 1990s.[17]
To coincide with a relaunch of its Cookies & Cream flavor with increased cookies in 2021, Breyers began offering "Cookie Coverage", a coupon to customers and an insurance certificate to allow claims for customers unsatisfied with the volume of cookies in their ice cream tubs. The campaign featured approval from the GEICO Gecko and was created in partnership with Edelman.[18][19][20] The brand resumed its partnership with Peters in 2024 to market its CarbSmart lower-calorie product line.[21][22] VML took over Breyers' marketing strategy the same year.[23]
See also
[edit]- Henry West Breyer Sr. House – Historic house in Pennsylvania, United States
- List of ice cream brands
References
[edit]- ^ Ettinger, Amy (2017). Sweet spot: An ice cream binge across America. New York, New York: Dutton. p. 15. ISBN 9781101984192.
- ^ Funderburg, Anne Cooper (1995). Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla: A history of American ice cream. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 56. ISBN 0879726911. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
- ^ a b c Goff, H. Douglas; Hartel, Richard W. (2013). Ice Cream. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4614-6096-1. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
- ^ Riddle, Holly (February 2, 2023). "The Untold Truth Of Breyers". Mashed. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
- ^ a b c Ivey, Dave (September 5, 1995). "Ice cream factory closing after 128 years; 240 jobs melting away". Associated Press. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Gellene, Denise (June 19, 1986). "East vs. West in Ice Cream Fight: Breyers' Attempt to Scoop Dreyer's Breeds Confusion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ "Firms put priority on packaging as product competition heats up". The Globe and Mail. Associated Press. January 16, 1987. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
- ^ Janofsky, Michael (September 9, 1993). "Unilever to Gain Breyers In Kraft Ice Cream Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
- ^ "Unilever to close Green Bay office". Milwaukee Business Journal. October 11, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Ameden, Danielle (April 1, 2011). "Breyers' Framingham facility closes its doors". MetroWest Daily News. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Flaherty, Nora (May 10, 2011). "North Lawrence Dairy closes: Workers, locals, farmers feel the effects". North Country Public Radio. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Murray, Rheana (February 12, 2015). "Breyers ice cream to stop using dairy from hormone-treated cows". The Today Show. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Barry, Dan (April 15, 2013). "Ice Cream's Identity Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Ibrahim, Nur (June 22, 2021). "Is Breyers Labeled 'Frozen Dessert' in Canada, Not Ice Cream?". Snopes. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Rascouët-Paz, Anna (May 24, 2024). "Breyer's Ice Cream Is Now Called 'Frozen Dessert' Because It's 50% Air?". Snopes. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Shoultz, Donald (May 18, 1989). "Visa Entry Is Hardly Plain Vanilla; Marine Midland's Breyers Card to Aid Children's Hospitals". American Banker.
- ^ Stressman, Emma (June 10, 2024). "Bernadette Peters on the joys of aging and her workout routine at 76". The Today Show. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ^ Faw, Larissa (June 28, 2021). "How Breyers Listened To Social Media Chatter for Product Inspiration". Agency Spy. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Harris, Molly; Barganier, Erich (June 28, 2021). "The Hilarious Way Breyers Is Responding To Critics Of Its Cookies And Cream Ice Cream". Mashed. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Bradley, Diane (June 28, 2021). "Breyers offers 'Cookie Coverage' to those unhappy with ice cream's cookie to cream raio". PR Week. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Tran, Diep (June 7, 2024). "Feel Good Friday: Broadway Goes Wild for Bernadette Peters' New Breyers Ad". Playbill. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ Clements, Erin (June 4, 2024). "Bernadette Peters Teams with Breyers to Rethink Ice Cream as an Anti-Aging Product (Exclusive)". People. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
- ^ O'Brien, Kyle (December 13, 2023). "VML Wins Ice Cream Brand Breyers for Strategy and Creative". AdWeek. Retrieved July 15, 2024.