Filmmaker Ava DuVernay accomplishes another goal and becomes the first black woman to grace Ben & Jerry’s ice cream pints.
The ‘Lights! Caramel! Action!’ ice cream is made of vanilla ice cream with salted caramel and graham cracker swirls and chocolate chip cookie dough pieces. The ice cream is also comes in dairy and non-dairy almond milk and will be available for purchase next month.
Ava spoke with PEOPLE about the launch and says she created the flavor “because I love them and I eat them in real life. First of all, chocolate chip cookie dough. What more needs to be said?”
She also added that advancing representation was apart of the reason why she decided to team up with the brand.
“There’s no women of color overall [on Ben & Jerry’s pints]. And so they understood that that’s something that they wanted to change. I’m happy that I was able to be involved in being a part of that change,” Ava says.
She added, “I’m not taking it too seriously, but I do think that it’s important to walk through doors that have not been opened. And it’s not an accomplishment because someone has closed the door and then opened it. It is an action that needs to be taken. And so I’m glad that they’ve done it. And if I can support that, I’m happy to do it.”
In addition, Ben & Jerry’s social justice mission helped push Ava to agree to the partnership.
“I just have always respected their voice,” she says. “You can just sell ice cream or you can sell ice cream and actually put a message on these packages and let people know what you believe in and what you stand for. But it’s really rare to have a brand that is not afraid to have a political, cultural, social point of view. And that’s been the bedrock of the brand from the beginning. It’s the bedrock of everything that I do. So it felt like a really happy marriage and it’s been really lovely.”
All of the proceeds from Ava’s ice cream sales will go to her nonprofit, ARRAY Alliance, that “looks at creating equitable systems in the entertainment industry.”
