With its Super Bowl spot, Drumstick hopes to be more than a ‘latent memory’ of summer

February feels more like a buffalo-dip-and-chili month than, say, one for novelty ice-cream confections. But Drumstick, the ice cream “sundae cone” brand, wants to remind Super Bowl snackers that it can be a year-round treat, too.

“Everybody knows who we are, but…it’s sometimes a latent memory, if you will,” Kerry Hopkins, marketing director for Drumstick parent company Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, told Marketing Brew.

For the 95-year-old brand’s first-ever Super Bowl spot, Hopkins said the wintertime ad didn’t dissuade them.

“As we always say in the office, it’s always 72 and sunny in front of your television, in your living room, at all times,” she said.

The Super Bowl spot—purchased sometime between the second and third quarter of last year—is less about highlighting the brand’s legacy (think Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdales, for example) and more about “getting the most from the marketing buy,” she said.

“It’s the stage where you could reach millions and millions of people super quickly at one time where you have their attention,” she said. (Unless, of course, viewers head to the kitchen freezer.)

The Drumstick spot is designed as an extension of a campaign first released in 2022, called “Another Day, Another Drumstick,” which introduced the brand mascot Dr. Umstick, a doll that feels spiritually similar to the cult classic Thunderbirds. His voice is suave, his hair is thick, and he speaks with the rasp of a classic noir actor. In an extended, four-minute ad from that original campaign, Dr. Umstick marries an ice-cream cone.

For the Super Bowl spot, Dr.Umstick is back, this time coming to the aid of comedian Eric Andre, who complains of a stomach ache mid-flight. Dr. Umstick gives him a Drumstick, prescribing “sweet, creamy relief,” and the rest of the cabin enjoys some ice cream. Those unfamiliar with Andre’s bizarre brand of comedy, described as “gonzo absurdism” by Ad Age, might ask themselves what they just watched. (The storyboards were already set by the time Andre was on board, but he still riffed on set, Hopkins said.)

In addition to selling ice cream, Hopkins hopes the ad will bring Dr. Umstick into the spotlight. “This is a great way to launch him, to bring him into the mainstream,” she said. The hope is that the doctor can “show the brand in a slightly different light than most ice-cream manufacturers [and] how they present their products.” Fudgie the Whale, eat your heart out.

To bolster the buy, the brand has been active on TikTok, where it has 1.1 million followers (“we’re the largest ice-cream manufacturer on TikTok,” Hopkins said), and is separately campaigning to make the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday with a petition on Change.org. As of Friday morning, it’s received a little over 4,600 signatures.

The big game is going to be extra sugary. Other advertisers appearing include candy brands Nerds, M&Ms, and Reese’s, cookie brand Oreo, and the Swiss chocolate company Lindt.