A new ice cream shop from New Zealand opened its first U.S. store at the Stadium Promenade in Orange. Appropriately, it's called New Zealand Natural Ice Cream. And though the ice cream may be made from “fresh dairy cream from cows that feed on the green unpolluted pastures of New Zealand”, its press release couldn't have sounded more artificial.
It reads like a celebutant-nudging, hype-craving, Hollywood-name-dropping act of desperation.
Judge for yourself:
“New Zealand Natural ice cream has sponsored Global Green’s Pre-Oscar Event, Lauren Conrad’s fashion show after party event, and premiere parties for many films such as Sony’s STEP BROTHERS and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and Warner Bros.’ GET SMART. The brand was Charlize Theron’s ice cream of choice during the shoot of Columbia Picture’s HANCOCK in which a scene is shot of Theron eating the ice cream! Celebrity fans of New Zealand Natural ice cream include Will Ferrell, Salma Hayek, Will Smith, and many more. Adrian Grenier is quite a fan that he even has a New Zealand Natural mini freezer poolside at his house always fully stocked wit[sic] his favorite flavors.”
I'll probably try the ice cream since I love New Zealand and I love ice cream, but let this be a lesson for future PR pushers: There's no faster way to turn off true foodies from your product than to name-drop celebrities whose opinion on food we care nothing about.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.