By TLL Staff
Sanrio and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream have partnered to introduce a Hello Kitty 50th anniversary flavor for National Ice Cream Day.
The limited-edition Hello Kitty flavor, titled Yummy Berry White Chocolate Truffle, is a blend of white chocolate ice cream with chunks of truffle brownies and swirls of raspberry jam that are made to resemble Hello Kitty’s signature red bow.
Sold exclusively on National Ice Cream Day, the Hello Kitty 50th anniversary ice cream flavor will be available to purchase nationwide at Van Leeuwen store locations.
“We’re excited to do something extra special for National Ice Cream Day with global icon Hello Kitty,” said Van Leeuwen CEO, Ben Van Leeuwen. “This is our cutest flavor yet.”
Founded in 2008, Van Leeuwen is a US-based ice cream company that specializes in hand-crafted French-style ice cream and vegan ice cream options.
Since its initial launch, the Van Leeuwen brand has expanded to include more than 50 ice cream scoop shops, as well as frozen treats that are available for purchase through its official e-commerce website and at department stores across the country.
Van Leeuwen and Sanrio will also host a special Hello Kitty pop-up event at the Van Leeuwen Tribeca shop in New York City.
The pop-up event will feature the licensed Yummy Berry White Chocolate Truffle ice-cream flavor, as well as Hello Kitty-themed sundaes, shakes and commemorative merch.
The limited-edition Hello Kitty merchandise will include branded friendship bracelets from the bracelet manufacturer, Little Words Project.
“With this super sweet collaboration, we want to bring smiles to everyone’s faces and create a special moment for fans across the U.S. to join in on Hello Kitty’s anniversary fun,” said Sanrio COO, Craig Takiguchi. “To surprise and delight our fans we are offering them memorable partnerships and experiences throughout the year to celebrate this milestone.”
To underscore Hello Kitty’s focus on themes of friendship and kindness, the two companies will be donating 50 percent of the profits from the sales of the limited-edition ice cream products to the American nonprofit organization, kindness.org.
“We at kindness.org are thrilled to partner with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and Sanrio in celebrating Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary on National Ice Cream Day,” said Kindness.org CEO, Jaclyn Lindsey. “This collaboration is a wonderful opportunity to spread joy while supporting our mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness. We’re excited to bring smiles to faces across the U.S. and create special moments for Hello Kitty fans everywhere.”
The kindness.org non-profit focuses on studying and promoting kindness and compassion across all aspects of human society through scientific research, educational programs, action-based products and community outreach initiatives.
Through their Kindlab research hub, kindness.org investigates the costs and benefits of kindness and the role it can play in solving problems such as poverty, societal inequities, discrimination and more.
Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company that specializes in creating, developing and licensing multi-platform content, consumer products and experiential attractions for its portfolio of lifestyle brands and character IP.
Best known for the long-standing Hello Kitty franchise, Sanrio’s portfolio of global brands also includes characters and IPs such as Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, Aggretsuko, Chococat, Keroppi and more.
The company currently has a large number of licensing activations in the works for the Hello Kitty brand’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebration.
This will include the introduction of new digital tools such as an augmented reality (AR) Sanrio app, short Hello Kitty animations on TikTok, monthly promotions in the official My Hello Kitty Café on Roblox and a Hello Kitty promotion on the digital Zepeto platform.
Hello Kitty Treat Launches at Van Leeuwen for National Ice Cream Day
