Five Stars for Häagen-Dazs five

Thursday afternoon in The New Yorker I saw an ad for Häagen-Dazs (boy! I’d never absorbed that it was spelled that way...sometimes when you have to write words out, they take on a new life) five ice cream. As a onetime copywriter (the credit is ancient, but still it was at Lord & Taylor under the gifted tutelage of Mary John Fly), I was impressed by the ad. A white on white photograph spread across the bottom of two pages, five words, each under an ingredient:
“Six [under an egg in its shell balanced on end]
ingredients [under a little geometric stand of white sugar cubes]
counting [tall skinny glass of—turns out to be non-fat—milk]
the [small bowl of swirled whipped cream]
spoon.” [jaggedly casual arrangement of chunks of milk chocolate]
I went out and bought milk chocolate five.
The most memorable ice cream I’ve ever eaten was from a shop near the temple at Paestum in Italy (how’s that for place dropping?)…it was hazelnut, and my husband nearly had to pick me up off the sidewalk.
I would say this ice cream is its match. It is not only pure, the texture is light, creamy, delicate, the flavors (to my palate) in exquisite balance.
Other fives being introduced are vanilla bean of course, then coffee, yum…brown sugar…passion fruit…ginger…mint.
This afternoon I bought the ginger.
I cannot imagine a fresher-tasting ice cream. And I’m one who keeps her ice cream maker bucket in the freezer, to be instantly at the ready.
I hope they’ll do something with lemon.
Ain’t it lovely when big business comes up with a product that’s not only the highest quality but fun and beautifully simple?
Häagen-Dazs could turn out to be the Mac of ice cream.