Mister Softee | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Ice cream |
Founded | 1956 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Founders |
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Headquarters | 901 Clements Bridge Road Runnemede, New Jersey , |
Key people |
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Products | Ice cream |
Website | www |
Mister Softee Inc. (doing business as Mister Softee) is an American ice cream truck franchisor, best known in the northeastern United States. The company is based in Runnemede, New Jersey.
Mister Softee Inc. was founded in 1956 by brothers William Aloysius Conway (1922–2004) and James Francis Conway (1927–2006) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [1] [2] Headquartered in Runnemede, New Jersey since 1958, Mister Softee became one of the largest franchisors of soft ice cream in the United States, with about 350 franchisees operating 625 trucks in 18 states.[ citation needed ] Around 1999, William and James' sons, John P. Conway and Jim Conway, Jr., took over the business. [3]
English-teacher-turned-entrepreneur-now-stand-up-comedian Turner Sparks was roommates with Alex Conway – Jim Conway, Jr's. son while attending the University of Miami. Sparks spoke fluent Mandarin and had been teaching English in Suzhou. In 2007, with Alex's help, Sparks launched a Mister Softee China franchise in Suzhou with just one truck. [4] [5] Five years later, Sparks had ten trucks and 25 employees, with plans to expand throughout China's eastern region.
Mister Softee China had created a menu that combined classic American ice cream products of shakes, floats, and sundaes with new Chinese products such as green tea ice cream, red bean ice cream, kiwifruit sundaes, and milk tea floats. While its American counterpart operated almost exclusively with trucks, Mister Softee China had kiosks in downtown shopping areas and trucks throughout China's suburban neighborhoods and business districts. [6] [7]
Mister Softee suspended its China operations in 2016. [6]
Mister Softee has defended its trademarks, notably in the following two cases:
With respect to defending the trademarks, Mister Softee vice president Jim Conway has stated, "For 58 years we've spent our time, energy, and money developing brands. We're one of the most recognized brands. The people who are infringing on our trademark are not only hurting Mr. Softee, but also hurting our mom and pop franchisees. We take these actions to protect them as much to protect our own brand." [12]
The melody broadcast from Mister Softee trucks – bearing the likeness of a music-box – was composed by Philadelphia ad man, Les Waas (né Lester Morton Waas; 1921–2016) [13] [14] [a] who titled it, "Jingle and Chimes." [15] Waas created close to 1,000 jingles. [16] [17] The melody is in E-flat major (though trucks play it almost a semitone sharper and thus sound closer to E major [18] ) and is based on Arthur Pryor's 1905 composition, "The Whistler and His Dog", [19] [b] thus being in six-eight time.
Michael Bloomberg, while Mayor of New York, launched an ambitious initiative in 2002 to crack-down on city noise, which included jingles broadcast from ice cream trucks – and in particular, the jingle from Mister Softee trucks. In 2005, in the face of opposition from citizens and members of the City Council, he compromised. Rather than banning mobile jingles, he permitted the trucks to air them, but only while in transit. [20]
In June 1961, Doug Quattlebaum, an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, was "re-discovered" playing popular and blues songs through the public address system of his Mister Softee ice cream van. [21] [22] The blues historian, Pete Welding, who became known for discovering talent in unusual places, [23] heard his performances and arranged for him to record an album. Released by Bluesville Records, Softee Man Blues (1963) had a photograph of Quattlebaum in his ice cream uniform on its front cover. [22]
Runnemede is a borough in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 8,324, a decrease of 144 (−1.7%) from the 2010 census count of 8,468, which in turn reflected a decline of 65 (−0.8%) from the 8,533 counted in the 2000 census.
The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds, and milk chocolate, first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928. The Heath bar has been manufactured and distributed by Hershey since its acquisition of the Leaf International North American confectionery operations late in 1996.
An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a cold-food specialty food truck or a mobile retail outlet for pre-packaged ice cream, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near parks, beaches, or other areas where people congregate. Ice cream vans often travel near where children play – outside schools, in residential areas, or in other locations. They usually stop briefly before moving on to the next street. Along the sides, a large sliding window acts as a serving hatch, and this often displays pictures of the available products and their prices. Most ice cream vans tend to sell both pre-manufactured ice pops in wrappers, and soft serve ice cream from a machine, served in a cone, and often with a chocolate flake, a sugary syrup, or toppings such as sprinkles. While franchises or chains are rare within the ice cream truck community, some do exist.
The cuisine of New York City comprises many cuisines belonging to various ethnic groups that have entered the United States through the city. Almost all ethnic cuisines are well represented in New York, both within and outside the various ethnic neighborhoods.
Grover Washington Jr. was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award winner. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders and legends of the smooth jazz genre. He wrote some of his material and later became an arranger and producer.
Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started by Harry Burt in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in American popular culture in the 1950s when the company operated up to 2,000 "sales cars".
Fried ice cream or tempura ice cream is a dessert made of a scoop of ice cream that is frozen hard, then breaded or coated in a batter before being quickly deep-fried, creating a warm, crispy shell around the still-cold ice cream. It is common in Chinese and Mexican cuisine.
Mister Donut is an international chain of doughnut stores, operating mostly in Asia. It was founded in the United States in 1956 by Harry Winokur. Primary offerings include doughnuts, coffee, muffins and pastries. After being acquired by Allied Domecq in 1990, most of the North American stores became Dunkin' Donuts. Outside of the United States, Mister Donut maintains a presence in Japan, El Salvador, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert and variety of ice cream, similar to conventional ice cream, but softer and less dense due to more air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the United States.
Electro Freeze is an Ali Group brand specializing in the manufacturing of frozen dessert machines including soft serve machines, shake machines, slush machines, and batch freezers, and is a division of H.C. Duke & Son LLC. It is most known for being the soft serve machine used by Dairy Queen, Carvel, and Sonic Drive-In, as well as many other soft serve ice cream establishments.
Peter John Welding was an American historian, archivist, and record producer specializing in jazz and blues.
Gotham Records was an American record label formed by Sam Goode (Goody) and Ivin Ballen in New York City in 1946. In January 1948 Ballen acquired the interest of Goode and became the sole owner. He then moved the company to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the label was based for the rest of its existence until 1956. The label specialized in rhythm and blues. Ivin Ballen died in Miami Beach, Florida, in February 1978.
"Ice Cream Truck" is a song by American rapper Cazwell. The song has been described as a light, easy and '80s-sounding hip-hop song that uses a xylophone to emulate a jingle played on an ice cream truck. The single was released in August 2010, and is a track on the deluxe edition of Cazwell's second album Watch My Mouth.
Mr. Whippy is a brand of soft-mix ice cream produced by Wall's, a subsidiary of Unilever as part of the Heartbrand. Mr. Whippy began as a franchise of ice cream operators, but is now just the name of the soft-mix ice cream, as such, many ice cream vendors selling the soft-mix brand themselves as "Mr. Whippy" and stylise their vehicles and outlets as they wish. Actual franchises of the brand continue separately in Australia and New Zealand.
Mobile Softee is an ice cream vendor in Hong Kong which uses ice cream trucks. The brand is owned by Ng Enterprises Ltd.
Big Gay Ice Cream (BGIC) is a New York City–based company that started with an ice cream truck. At the company’s peak they operated four storefronts in New York City and one in Philadelphia. Co-founded by Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff, BGIC specializes in soft-serve ice cream cones, cups, and novelties with a menu of unique and unusual flavors and toppings. BGIC was part of a wider trend of gourmet and upscale food trucks popular in the United States.
Genevieve Belleveau is an American performance artist and singer based in New York City and Los Angeles. Belleveau is best known for her relational art pieces which involve the audience in the art. She confronts within her work issues of human connection, technology and religious ritual. She was also a driver of a Mister Softee ice cream truck and has managed operations for the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.
The Procrastinators' Club of America is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and describes its purpose as promoting "the philosophy of relaxation through putting off until later those things that needn't be done today." It was established in 1956 as a joke by Les Waas who eventually registered it as a business in Philadelphia in 1966. Waas remained the organization's president until at least 2011. Waas also worked in advertising, where he wrote the Mister Softee jingle played by its ice cream trucks as well as more than 970 other jingles.
Elijah Douglas Quattlebaum, better known as Doug Quattlebaum, was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He recorded one single for Gotham Records in 1953, but was offered another opportunity following his employment as an ice cream salesman.
An annoyance factor, in advertising and brand management, is a variable used to measure consumers' perception level of annoyance in an ad, then analyzed to help evaluate the ad's effectiveness. The variable can be observed or inferred and is a type that might be used in factor analyses. An annoyance effect is a reference to the impact or result of an annoying stimulus, which can be a strategic aspect of an advertisement intended to help a message stick in the minds of consumers. References to annoyance effects have been referred to as annoyancedynamics. While the words "factor" and "effect", as used in the behavioral sciences, have different meanings, in casual vernacular, they have been used interchangeably as synonymous. A more general or umbrella term would simply be advertising annoyance.