Influx

Radical revolutionaries and ice cream makers, Ben & Jerry’s, now owned by multinational, Unilever, announced yesterday that it will launch a new flavor, Americone Dream.

The real news is that Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert is fully behind it.

“I’m not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal agenda. What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case.”

Colbert’s ice cream will succeed by appealing to both ironist and non-ironist audiences.

Colbert is building a huge following for his show, “The Colbert Report” and he is using his following to play with the media in unexpected ways.

For example;

A green screen special effects contests for his viewers- where they get to play with show content

Getting his viewers to change Wikipedia entries, which backfired and ended up showing just how robust Wikipedia is.

Supporting a Canadian minor league hockey team and encouraging its fans to throw General Motors annual reports onto the ice of a rival

Encouraging his viewers to visit the website of a Hungarian town and vote for his name to be used on a historic bridge

Opening his own museum and gift shop in Tuscumbia, Alabama

Brands and their agencies could do worse than taking a look at how Colbert encourages his audience to get engaged with the show and how he uses the powerful combination of online and offline media.