Häagen-Dazs Celebrates Its Pioneering Female Founder for International Women’s Day

Reuben Mattus made the ice cream, but Rose Mattus made Haagen-Dazs. This International Women’s Day in support of the theme, Embrace Equity, Häagen-Dazs is proud to be celebrating its pioneering female founder, with a global initiative to shine a light on her unsung contribution to the brand and her #DontHoldBack ethos.

On 8th March, Häagen-Dazs will offer its biggest free scoop giveaway, which will be the first of its kind as a global Shops initiative. Häagen-Dazs Vanilla ice cream will be renamed to the ‘Founder’s Favourite’, in recognition of Rose’s life-long love of our iconic original flavour since 1960. The ‘Founder’s Favourite’ will be offered as a free scoop to consumers to mark International Women’s Day in over 100 selected Häagen-Dazs Shops across Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

A global rebrand honouring Rose’s contribution will see ‘Rose Mättus Woman Founded Business Established 1960’ accompanying the iconic Häagen-Dazs logo across multiple touch points in Shops and on digital and social platforms. 

The campaign marks the launch of ‘The Rose Project’ an initiative honouring Rose’s legacy which pledges $100,000 in bursaries to support trailblazing women around the world who Don’t Hold Back. People around the world will have the opportunity to nominate themselves or other unsung women who deserve recognition for their trailblazing efforts, achievements and societal contributions. From these nominations, a shortlist of 50 ‘WOMEN WHO DON’T HOLD BACK’ will be selected for their commendable efforts and put forward for the opportunity to win one of five monetary grants of $20,000 each. The bursary fund will enable these five Rose Project Honourees to continue their exceptional work and unleash their potential or even give to a cause they’re passionate about.

Nominations for The Rose Project are now open and can be submitted via https://iwd.haagen-dazs.global/.

Clare Brosnan, global brand experience director at Häagen-Dazs, said: “In 2021, we launched our Women Who Don't Hold Back campaign shining a light on female trailblazers around the globe, but now it's time to recognise our own remarkable female founder. Reuben Mattus made our flavours but Rose Mattus made us famous! By telling Rose’s untold story as a marketing pioneer who built our brand as a true partner to her inventor husband and helped create our Shops business with her daughter Doris, we hope to use this year’s IWD celebration as a beacon for #EmbraceEquity. Furthermore, Rose’s beloved Vanilla flavour will be celebrated in Shops around the world with our biggest global ice cream scoop giveaway so that everyone can enjoy our iconic ‘Founder’s Favourite’.

"Finally, we will honour and mark Rose’s legacy with the launch of our new global platform, The Rose Project, which aims to support women across all fields around the world who Don’t Hold Back and who are deserving of recognition. We hope that Rose Mattus’ story inspires talented and often unsung women to share their own story and also put others forward for the grants. The launch of The Rose Project directly puts our purpose to action with the long-term commitment to supporting women and gender equity going well beyond International Women’s Day.”

For those unable to attend the Free Scoop day, a limited-edition run of 1960 Häagen-Dazs ‘Founder’s Favourite’ Vanilla take-home pints has been created with a commemorative Rose Mattus design. The pints will be available in all celebrating Shops around the world across the month of March and consumers will have an opportunity to redeem them by scanning an in store QR code and nominating someone for The Rose Project.

The global idea has been conceptualised by Forsman & Bodenfors New York with all creative and design led by LOVE, social strategy by BrandCrops Madrid and The Rose Project management by Capture Communications.