ARCHIVEFriendly's Bets on Kindness to Sell Ice Cream in 2019
Friendly's 'Be Friendly. Get Friendly's' is a 2019 United States brand campaign created by Forsman & Bodenfors that uses two short comedy films to argue that acts of genuine friendliness are rewarded with Friendly's ice cream desserts, repositioning the brand around human behaviour rather than product attributes.
The campaign launched in May 2019 and comprises two distinct films: 'Sharing' and 'Siblings.' As reported by LBBOnline, 'Sharing' follows a woman who, after demonstrating an act of generosity, receives an additional Friendly's Dessert Cup as a kind of karmic return. 'Siblings' dramatises the same cause-and-effect logic from the opposite angle, showing a sundae cup disappearing in response to an unkind remark between brothers before reappearing once friendly behaviour is restored. Both spots were produced through F&B Studios in New York and directed by Jared Lapidus.
The campaign represents a deliberate strategic break from Friendly's prior positioning. According to Ads of the World, the brand had operated under the platform 'Where ice cream makes the meal' from 2013 through 2018. The 2019 work, developed through Forsman & Bodenfors' New York office, redirected that identity toward a values-led proposition: behave well, earn the treat. The tagline 'Be Friendly. Get Friendly's' encodes the mechanic directly into the brand name, making the pun functional rather than decorative. Clapboard rates the campaign 55 out of 100, reflecting a concept that is clearly articulated and competently executed but limited in its ambition and reach.
Friendly's occupies a regional and nostalgic position in the United States ice cream and casual dining category. The brand's equity is tied to family occasions and shared moments rather than premium ingredients or innovation, which makes an emotion-led creative platform a defensible strategic choice. Rather than competing on taste or novelty against larger national players, Forsman & Bodenfors elected to anchor the 2019 campaign to a behavioural insight: that the brand name itself contains an implied social contract.
The competitive context in the United States at the time of launch was considerable. Unilever, identified by HTF Market Insights as the global leader in ice cream, operates Ben & Jerry's directly in the US market, a brand that generated more than $680 million in sales in 2019, according to InfluenceWatch, making it the best-selling ice cream brand that year. Dairy Queen, also cited by HTF Market Insights among major ice cream market participants, maintains a strong US presence built on experiential retail and product theatre. Against these well-resourced competitors, Friendly's campaign chose warmth and wit over appetite appeal or indulgence messaging.
The strategic rationale, as covered by LBBOnline, was to reignite Friendly's founding mission by connecting the brand's name to a lived social value. Strategists Rita Dory and Robbie Felder at Forsman & Bodenfors built the brief around the idea that friendliness is not just a name but a behaviour that can be dramatised and rewarded. In the United States food and drink advertising landscape of 2019, where purpose-driven brand narratives were gaining traction, this approach placed Friendly's within a broader cultural current without requiring the brand to overreach its category or budget.
Jared Lapidus directed both films for the 'Be Friendly. Get Friendly's' campaign, working through F&B Studios in New York. The production approach favours tight observational comedy over spectacle, using everyday domestic and social settings to ground the fantastical reward-and-consequence mechanic in recognisable human behaviour.
The creative team at Forsman & Bodenfors included Cerra Buckholz, Jordan Chouteau, Michael Rosenthal, and Justin Cannon, with Jose Maria Neves also credited, as documented by Clapboard. Agency content producers Kim Jose and Laura Peguero oversaw production logistics, with executive producer Misha Kozlov leading at the production company level. Group account director Steve McCall and account director Michael Levitt managed the client relationship, supported by account executive Andrew Dean. Business affairs were handled by Matt Friday and Denise Klapp.
The two-film structure is itself a craft decision. 'Sharing' and 'Siblings' approach the same mechanic from different emotional angles — one aspirational, one cautionary — giving the campaign tonal range within a compact asset set. As reported by LBBOnline, the films use the physical disappearance and reappearance of Friendly's products as the visible proof of the brand's thesis, a device that keeps the product central without resorting to conventional appetite-shot advertising. The comedy is situational rather than absurdist, which aligns with the brand's accessible, family-friendly identity in the United States market. The decision to contain the campaign to two films, each with a clear narrative arc, reflects a disciplined approach to storytelling that suits both broadcast and digital distribution formats prevalent in US food and drink advertising in 2019.
ARCHIVENo verified performance data for the 'Be Friendly. Get Friendly's' campaign is publicly available. Sales lift, view counts, brand tracking results, and media spend figures have not been disclosed by Friendly's or Forsman & Bodenfors in any publicly documented source reviewed by Clapboard, LBBOnline, or Ads of the World.
Assessed on structural grounds, the campaign demonstrates genuine creative logic. The tagline functions as both instruction and reward mechanism, and the brand name carries the entire argument without requiring a product demonstration. This is an efficient use of a distinctive brand asset in the United States food and drink category, where brand names rarely do double duty as behavioural prompts.
The two-film format provides coverage of the mechanic from complementary directions, which strengthens message retention across different audience touchpoints. However, the campaign's reliance on a single comedic device across both executions limits its capacity for long-term platform extension. A Clapboard Score of 55 out of 100 reflects work that is conceptually coherent and well-produced but does not demonstrate the creative ambition or cultural penetration that would place it among the more significant brand platform launches of 2019 in the United States. The campaign marks a meaningful strategic reset for Friendly's — moving decisively away from the product-centred 'Where ice cream makes the meal' positioning held from 2013 to 2018, according to Ads of the World — but its execution does not fully capitalise on the emotional potential of that shift.
Friendly's 'Be Friendly. Get Friendly's' is a 2019 United States brand campaign built around a cause-and-effect premise. Acts of kindness are rewarded with Friendly's desserts, while unkind behaviour causes them to disappear. The campaign was created by Forsman & Bodenfors and expressed through two short comedy films titled 'Sharing' and 'Siblings,' directed by Jared Lapidus.
Forsman & Bodenfors' New York office created the campaign. Director Jared Lapidus shot both films through F&B Studios in New York. The creative team included Cerra Buckholz, Jordan Chouteau, Michael Rosenthal, and Justin Cannon, with strategists Rita Dory and Robbie Felder shaping the underlying brief, as documented by Clapboard and reported by LBBOnline.
Friendly's previous platform was 'Where ice cream makes the meal,' held from 2013 to 2018, according to Ads of the World. The 2019 campaign moved away from product-centred messaging toward a values-led idea, making friendliness itself the entry condition for receiving a Friendly's dessert and activating the social meaning embedded in the brand name.
'Sharing' follows a woman who receives an extra Friendly's Dessert Cup after acting generously. 'Siblings' shows a sundae cup vanishing when an unkind remark is made between brothers, then returning once friendly behaviour resumes. Both films, as reported by LBBOnline, use the physical presence of Friendly's products to make the reward-and-consequence mechanic tangible.
Clapboard rates the campaign 55 out of 100. The score reflects a conceptually sound and competently produced campaign that establishes a clear brand mechanic for Friendly's in the United States market. The rating indicates that while the strategic reset is meaningful, the execution does not reach the level of cultural impact associated with higher-scoring brand platform launches.
Friendly's competes in the United States against significantly larger players. Unilever, identified by HTF Market Insights as the global ice cream category leader, operates Ben & Jerry's in the US market. Ben & Jerry's was the best-selling ice cream brand in 2019, according to InfluenceWatch. Dairy Queen also maintains a strong US retail and experiential presence in the same category.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
