Ice Cream Magic (home made ice cream) – A Marketing Review
The kids are growing impatient.
One moment they’re complaining about being hungry. The next they’re bored. And then they’re hungry again. And then the cat has explosive diarrhea outside of his litter box. And then the kids complain about that, yelling that sight looks horrendous, smells atrocious and it nearly makes them vomit. And then the kids complain about something else.
Just when you’ve had enough and you’re about to lock the kids in the dark basement for a few hours to play hide-and-seek with the cockroaches, a quick thought races into your mind. Suddenly it’s clear. There’s a solution that may keep the vermin quiet for a few minutes.
They can make ice cream!
Ice Cream Magic website — www.IceCreamMagic.com
Pausing for a moment, you try to remember the TV commercial you saw the other night. You know, the one where kids got to make home made ice cream.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial
Didn’t that just look so cool and fun and awesome?
Let’s take a closer look at the Ice Cream Magic TV commercial and try to see just what they’re selling us.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Pay attention or I’ll keep whining!
We’ve heard it all before. “I’m hungry! There’s nothing to eat! The toilet is overflowing again!” Blah, blah, blah.
We know that ignoring the kids doesn’t always work as they’re prone to just becoming louder and even more annoying. Nor is pouring cat treats into a bowl and telling them that it’s a special snack. Junior finally figured out it really was Mitten’s food the third time he tasted it. The cat, meanwhile, is still angry that somebody else was eating his food.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – I’m soooooooooooooooooo bored!
Along with the cries of “I’m hungry!” there’s also the dreaded, “I’m bored!”
I guess doing homework, reading a book, cutting the grass and washing the car are out of the question. I’m sure Junior has also beaten all of his video games by now as well. It looks like the kid finally needs to find a new hobby, something besides lying on the coach and acting lazier than the pet cat.
Oh what can this poor kid do to occupy his precious free time? Can he learn something new, or is that outlawed outside of the classroom? Is he too tired to go clean his room or fold his laundry? Maybe there’s something for him to eat in the kitchen. A little sugary snack might get those creative juices flowing again.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – I want something sweet, and cold, and tasty, and delicious, and filling, and satisfying, and sometimes crunchy, and . . .
Here we have little Miss Hungry sitting with an empty bowl and wishing for something sweet to eat. Is her leg broken? Does she have to bug her mom to get her something to eat? Can’t she get it herself from the refrigerator or freezer?
On a side note, whenever I’ve heard people talk about or describe ice cream, “sweet” is a rarely used description. Most people describe ice cream as “cold,” “filling,” “creamy,” “chocolate/vanilla/strawberry/mint/cookie dough/etc.” If this girl is craving something sweet, perhaps she needs a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Tony claims that they’re grrrrrrrrrrreat!
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – It’s the Ice Cream Magic! The peasants rejoice.
Apparently the solution to the hungry/bored/craving sweetness problems is the Ice Cream Magic thingy.
And just what makes the plastic cup in the shape of an ice cream cone so fun and magical? It makes ice cream. Well, it helps YOU make the ice cream. YOU still need to add the ice cubes, salt, cream, flavors, and then shake the contraption for a few minutes while the cream slowly freezes. But’s it’s still fun to think of it as magical, right?
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – I have a little bit of ice cream! Yay!
As we see in the TV commercial, after just three minutes of shaking you’ll have a tiny little cup of ice cream. I wonder how many people will still be smiling when they see how little ice cream they have in the end. You’ll see a better example of it in a few moments.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Why is it so hard to follow simple instructions?
Why are those “other” ice cream makers so hard to use? Is it the fact that they require basic motor skills along with a few muscle movements? How about the fact that you may have to read the instruction manual and use a tiny percentage of brainpower before using the machine?
Maybe those “other” ice cream machines are difficult because people seem to use them in the most clumsy way possible, such as the lady in this example. Maybe, just maybe, she might have an easier time assembling the machine if it was lower and not up high on the table.
And just how easy is it to use the Ice Cream Magic? The TV commercial takes us through the process.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – First we add some ice cubes.
Step one is to add some ice cubes to the plastic container. This is necessary for most home made ice cream recipes and contraptions. We need it to be freezing cold for this to work correctly.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Now it’s time for some salt.
After the ice cubes we need to add some salt. I like how the TV commercial refers to the salt to “activate the deep freeze” as if there’s a big secret with the Ice Cream Magic.
I’ll give you a big hint. There’s NO secret. This is basic science.
The salt causes the ice to melt and reduce the freezing point of the supercooled water. This, in turn, creates a small pocket of below freezing water and frigid air that will help freeze the cream and turn it into ice cream. The Ice Cream Magic is just a plastic ice cream cone that holds everything together. The ice cubes, salt, and other ingredients are the same as if you were to make ice cream at home any other way.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Wait! The cup for the ice cream is *how* large?
Perhaps the better question is just how small is that cup that goes in the plastic ice cream cone?
That very cup is what holds the cream and whatever flavor you add to the mixture. The ice cubes and salt stay below the cup, and the ice cream forms inside the cup. That’s it. To me, that cup looks to be about half the size of a tennis ball. Something tells me that the kiddies will still be hungry after eating just a little bit of ice cream.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – It’s time to add the cream and everything else.
The Ice Cream Magic TV commercial only mentions adding cream and some flavor, but you’ll also most likely be adding some sugar and other ingredients as well. I’m sure it’s all explained in the recipe book that comes with the plastic cup. The key thing here is remembering to keep the mixture in the cup and NOT mixed with the ice cubes and salt.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Give them some sugar and watch them go!
Once you have everything assembled and the lid secured tightly, give the plastic ice cream cones to the kids and have them jump around for three minutes. Remember, keep shaking the container! Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, and shake! Those three minutes spent shaking A) might work off the calories gained by the ice cream, and B) might help those those arms of yours. Think of it almost as a Shake Weight.
I wonder how long it’ll take before the kids get tired of shaking the container each time they want some ice cream. Can they make it through the three intense minutes of shaking? Just how long will the Ice Cream Magic maintain its novelty?
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – This tiny cup of ice cream is so delicious.
It’s fun!
It looks delicious!
See how all the kids are smiling while eating ice cream? Smiling kids are much better than unhappy, whining, complaining kids, right? If a kid is smiling in a TV commercial, then it must mean that this product is a winner. Just don’t look too closely at the details. Remember the smiling kids and think of your own children being just as happy, even if it means they have to measure ingredients AND shake a container for several minutes.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – Holy crap! Look at all of those sprinkles!
When you factor in the small amount of ice cream, the sprinkle to ice cream ratio is quite high at this point. I wonder if the ice cream would be even more magically delicious if you added some sprinkles before shaking the cream, that way they would be scattered throughout the ice cream. Oooh, that sounds like fun. It could even be served with that birthday confetti cake mix I always see in the grocery store. Now imagine if you had several quarts of the sprinkle “confetti” ice cream instead of a microscopic amount . . .
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – I don’t feel guilty because it’s such a SMALL amount of ice cream.
Ah, yes. Even parents can get into the fun and enjoyment of shaking a small container and enjoying a little bit of ice cream. I like it how the mom in this scene tries to look so sophisticated when eating out of a kid’s container. Did she also make said child shake the container, or was the mom able to handle that part?
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – We made a poopie—-errrr—-ice cream!
Apparently the Ice Cream Magic can be used to keep children entertained at birthday parties. Congratulations! We have a selling point at the end of the TV commercial! It works as an activity at birthday parties.
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – The ‘basic’ promotion.
The end of the Ice Cream Magic TV commercial has the sale promotion. In this case there are two promotions, so we’ll start with the basic one first.
For just $14.99 we can receive a single ice cream cup and a single spoon. The promotion adds a second ice cream cup and spoon, along with the recipe book for free. We just have to pay a little bit extra in shipping and handling fees.
The TOTAL COST of the buy-one-get-one free promotion comes to $26.97 ($14.99 + $6.99 S&H + $4.99 S&H (for the second ice cream cone)).
Ice Cream Magic TV commercial – The ‘party pack’ promotion.
The second Ice Cream Magic promotion is for what they refer to as a “party pack.” This package includes six of the plastic ice cream cones, six spoons, and a single recipe book.
The TOTAL COST of the Ice Cream Magic “party pack” comes to $39.98 ($29.99 + $9.99 S&H).
FINAL THOUGHTS
The question here is just how much money are YOU going to spend to have home made ice cream?
You need to keep in mind that each of the plastic ice cream cones doesn’t exactly hold a lot of ice cream in the end. Those incredibly small serving spoons help make it look like the equally small amount of ice cream is more than it appears. But this is really an illusion. The TV commercial shows the true size of the cup that holds the cream in the container, and the finished amount of ice cream won’t be much more than that. That is, if you put enough cream in there in the first place.
One needs to keep in mind that the Ice Cream Magic was obviously designed for children to use and enjoy. Is it made to teach them how to make ice cream? That’s doubtful. If this was a teaching tool I doubt that its title would include the word “magic.” “Magic” in this case is basic science, something that most children could understand.
Making small amounts of home made ice cream is relatively easy. There are dozens of instructions on the Internet that show you how to use everyday household items to create the cold snack. Researching and following through with the instructions could be a fun activity with the kiddies or even an interesting science fair project.
When it comes to making real amounts of home made ice cream, ice cream mixers have been on the market for years. Hell, you can get a four-quart electric mixer at Walmart for around $25. They’re not that expensive or cumbersome these days.
When it comes to the Ice Cream Magic, is it really worth spending $26.97 so you can make two small containers of home made ice cream?
——————————————-
All of the Ice Cream Magic commercial images were screenshots of a TV commercial currently available on YouTube and the product’s website. For more product information, please visit the company’s website at www.IceCreamMagic.com.
Ice Cream Magic is a registered trademark.
RellimZone.com is not affiliated with Ice Cream Magic or Walmart.