Girls Scouts Gone Wild! .... by Art Rothafel

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself... and I knew the headline would catch your attention!

But, have you seen the latest marketing mis-match?  How about Dairy Queen and the Girl Scouts of America. 

Yup, they're in bed together promoting the new Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard from Dairy Queen.  According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) the large size version, which weighs more than a pound, has more than 1,000 calories, 31 teaspoons of sugars, and provides more than a day’s saturated fat.

It’s like drinking two Big Macs at once!

So, how do the Girl Scouts defend the renting of their "good name" brand to the ice cream chain?

“Our partnership with Dairy Queen enables us to reach the public in new and unexpected places,” said Laurel Richie, who holds the position of “chief marketing officer” of the Girl Scouts of the USA, in a press release.

Hah!  Again, according to CSPI, those “unexpected places” will include the waistlines and coronary arteries of at least 10 million people by the end of the month if the company meets its projections. Dairy Queen is on track to sell that many Thin Mint Blizzards by the end of July it told USA Today, but the chain and the Girl Scouts are both mum on how much money has changed hands.

“Selling cookies door to door is one thing,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “But renting out its nonprofit brand name to a junk-food chain is a major badge of shame for the Girl Scouts. It runs counter to the Girl Scouts’ mission, and this product and its marketing campaign deliver a very unhealthful message to young girls and others. If you were designing a product with the intent of promoting obesity and type-2 diabetes in girls, it would look exactly like the Thin Mint Blizzard.”

Being the dad of a 14-year old daughter, I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Jacobson.

A Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard is soft-serve mint and vanilla ice cream combined with Thin Mint cookies and topped with a creme-de-menthe flavored syrup made out of high-fructose corn syrup. Even a small size has the calories (540) and a little more saturated fat (12grams) than a Big Mac.

Bottoms up!