Ice cream brand Dippin’ Dots seeks to cool feud with Trump spokesman Sean Spicer

Dippin’ Dots is extending an olive branch to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in an attempt to put a freeze on a long-running feud between the Kentucky-based ice cream snack maker and the Washington, D.C.-based spokesperson for president Donald Trump.

Spicer has been in the news lately for assailing journalists over their reporting of attendance numbers for Trump’s inauguration, but it’s not the first battle the 45-year-old has picked.

Seven years before Spicer took to the White House‘s press briefing room to accuse journalists of delegitimizing Trump’s presidency, he took to Twitter to take umbrage with Dippin’ Dots slogan, “The Ice Cream of the Future.”

A year later, he shared a Wall Street Journal article reporting on Dippin’ Dots filing for bankruptcy, cheekily dubbing them the “Ice Cream of the Past.”

The company would later reorganize its debt and continued selling its product, which it describes on its official website as “tiny, icy little beads encapsulating the greatest flavours known to mankind.”

More recently, in 2015, the then-chief strategist for the Republican National Committee tweeted his disappointment at not being able to procure vanilla-flavoured Dippin’ Dots at Nationals Park, the stadium of the Washington Nationals baseball team.

After Twitter users’ unearthed Spicer’s long-held frostiness towards Dippin’ Dots, the company responded with an open letter in which it stated its desire “to be friends rather than foes” and offered to host an ice cream party at the White House:

“We understand that ice cream is a serious matter. And running out of your favorite flavor can feel like a national emergency! We’ve seen your tweets and would like to be friends rather than foes. After all, we believe in connecting the dots.

As you may or may not know, Dippin’ Dots are made in Kentucky by hundreds of hard working Americans in the heartland of our great country. As a company, we’re doing great. We’ve enjoyed double-digit growth in sales for the past three years. That means we’re creating jobs and opportunities. We hear that’s on your agenda too.

We can even afford to treat the White House and press corps to an ice cream social. What do you say? We’ll make sure there’s plenty of all your favorite flavors.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We understand that ice cream is a serious matter. And running out of your favorite flavor can feel like a national emergency! We've seen your tweets and would like to be friends rather than foes. After all, we believe in connecting the dots.</p><p>As you may or may not know, Dippin' Dots are made in Kentucky by hundreds of hard working Americans in the heartland of our great country. As a company, we're doing great. We've enjoyed double-digit growth in sales for the past three years. That means we're creating jobs and opportunities. We hear that's on your agenda too.</p><p>We can even afford to treat the White House and press corps to an ice cream social. What do you say? We'll make sure there's plenty of all your favorite flavors."

Despite a busy Monday schedule that included a wide-ranging press conference, Spicer made time to respond using his and his boss’ favourite medium of communication, Twitter.

Dippin’ Dots responded saying that it would be more than happy to bring truckloads of red, blue and Spicer’s favourite white ice cream beads to the White House in February to celebrate George Washington’s birthday.

Observers of the Twitter exchange have even set up a website that invites people to send Spicer some Dippin’ Dots.

Shama Hyder, CEO of Dippin’ Dots’ social media agency The Marketing Zen Group, says a lot of thought was put into the now-viral open letter, with the company keen to avoid getting “caught in the political cross-hairs.”

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“There’s nothing more non-political than ice cream.”

Hyder admits that while Spicer has had his disagreements with Dippin’ Dots, the company, which was founded in 1988, might just owe a debt of gratitude to the prickly press secretary for helping raise its brand profile.

“We’ve gotten more than a 370 million reach on Twitter alone. The social media buzz around the brand has grown… I think in that way Dippin’ Dots personifies every brand out there that has the opportunity to turn a critic into a champion,” she says.

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Hyder concludes that Dippin’ Dots entry into a public consciousness fatigued by conspiracy theories, fake news and ‘alternative facts’ is a welcome one.

“Everyone in the U.S. has some kind of memory of hanging out in the mall and having Dippin’ Dots with their friends. In some ways it’s actually a reminder of simpler times, and I think we’re all nostalgic for those times when the world maybe made a little more sense than it does today.”