Getty Ava DuVernay is entering the freezer aisle!
Lights! Caramel? Action!
This week, Ben & Jerry’s announced the latest in a long line of celebrity flavor collaborations with none other than director and filmmaker Ava DuVernay. The new flavor, aptly named “Lights! Caramel! Action!”, features, “Vanilla ice cream with salted caramel swirls, graham cracker swirls, and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough”, and comes in a dairy and non-dairy variety (the non-dairy variety is also vegan, having been made with almond milk).
“Lights! Caramel! Action!” is set to appear in stores nationwide over the next few weeks and will be available in Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in January 2023. Prior to its release, Heavy got to hear all about the new flavor from the team behind the collaboration. Here’s what you need to know.
Ava DuVernay Came Up With the Name ‘Lights! Caramel! Action!’ On the Spot
Ben & Jerry’s flavor names can come from anybody in the company. According to Flavor Guru Colleen Rossell, and Lindsay Bumps from Ben & Jerry’s Global Marketing team, large teams will meet for brainstorming sessions where they try and come up with as many possible flavor ideas and names as they can, though there is no formula to developing a new flavor. Sometimes the perfect flavor comes up and they have to find a name for it, and sometimes the perfect flavor name is uttered and the team will have to reverse engineer the flavor to fit the name.
While developing Ava DuVernay’s new flavor, Rossell said that the director was very decisive and knew what she did and didn’t like and that she researched Ben & Jerry’s bestsellers to get some ideas of what would go best in her pints. DuVernay’s biggest request was that the flavor incorporates cookies or cookie dough, and after only a few rounds of testing out flavors and adjusting combinations, they landed on their final formula.
Bumps also confirmed that DuVernay came up with the name “Lights! Caramel! Action!” on the spot during one of their meetings while developing the flavor, and they all knew it was meant to be. “She blurted it out and we were all like, ‘That’s it, that’s the name,'” Bumps said.
A Portion of the Flavor’s Sales Go to Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Alliance
Beyond her work as a writer, director, and producer, Ava DuVernay is well known as a supporter of broader representation on film sets, both in front of and behind the camera, so it is fitting that DuVernay be the first Black woman featured on a Ben & Jerry’s pint.
Ben & Jerry’s has also built up a reputation as a company that values Social & Economic Justice, and has partnered with other notable celebrities and activists before on flavors. Colin Kaepernick’s flavor “Change the Whirled” was introduced in 2020, and in accordance with Kaepernick’s advocacy for racial justice, a portion of the profits was donated to Know Your Rights Camp.
Similarly to Kaepernick’s flavor, Ben & Jerry’s has announced that a portion of the profits from DuVernay’s “Lights! Caramel! Action!” will be donated to DuVernay’s ARRAY Alliance, the non-profit arm of DuVernay’s distribution company ARRAY, which works to get more representation for women and people of color on film sets, in turn affecting broader social change.