by Travis Normand
According to the Associated Press, Peachy Paterno ice cream will continue to be sold on the Penn State campus.
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences announced on Monday that Peachy Paterno will remain in the freezers at the Berkey Creamery. Additionally, for the next year, the sales generated from the famous flavor will be donated to a charity that deals with the world-wide issue of child sex abuse.
While I am happy to see something that is named after Joe Paterno not be changed, I do question the logic in deciding not to change the name of the ice cream. Since the Freeh report was released, we have seen “Paternoville” change its name to “Nittanyville,” as well as the removal of Joe Paterno’s statue from the Penn State campus.
However, Penn State has apparently decided that leaving Paterno’s name on a flavor of ice cream is not offensive to Sandusky’s victims (and/or it doesn’t honor the late Joe Paterno in an inappropriate fashion).
Could this be another bad public relations move by Penn State? It looks that way.
I am guessing that Penn State is afraid the ice cream flavor won’t sell as well if marketed under a different name.
The university’s College of Agricultural Sciences said Monday it would donate sales of Peachy Paterno for the next year, but it hasn’t identified the recipient yet.
While donating the proceeds to charity is a noble gesture, what is the plan after next year? Is the university going to stop donating, and start keeping, the money it makes off of Peachy Paterno? If so, why is this okay? I don’t have a problem with not changing the name, but it does seem inconsistent with everything else the school has done so far. I guess the rules change when money is involved.
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