Selena Gomez Invested in an Ice Cream Brand to Promote Her New Single

When Selena Gomez and K-Pop supergroup Blackpink drop their much-anticipated single “Ice Cream,” music fans will be able to get a literal scoop of it as well as an auditory one. Gomez announced Monday that through a new investment in ice cream brand Serendipity — which owns popular New York ice cream restaurant Serendipity3 — she will release a new ice cream flavor to churn some extra marketing for the song.

The new flavor is called Cookies & Cream Remix and, fitting to her collaboration with Blackpink, features pink vanilla ice cream. In a statement, Gomez said she grew up a fan of Serendipity. Gomez’s new flavor will go on sale on August 28th, the same day her song with Blackpink will drop. Serendipity didn’t specify the nature of its partnership with Gomez or how much money she invested in the company — but according to a representative for the company, she’ll be working with Serendipity to develop several more flavors in the coming year.

Gomez’s investment in the company comes as many brands seek more artist and celebrity partnerships through the ongoing pandemic. In June, branding agents from several of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies told Rolling Stone that interest for artist collaborations for advertisements and sponsored livestreams had skyrocketed in recent months.

And Cookies & Cream Remix is just the latest in on-the-nose marketing from Universal Music artists this year. To promote her new single “Cardigan” off hit album Folklore, Taylor Swift, signed to Republic Records, started selling Folklore-branded cardigans in July.

“Ice Cream” has been highly anticipated in the last two months, ever since Blackpink’s label YG Entertainment teased new music featuring a then-unnamed artist set for an August release. Gomez confirmed she was the collaborator in question on Instagram earlier this month. Blackpink and YG signed a global partnership deal with Interscope in 2018 and have since used that partnership to leverage more opportunities with popular Interscope artists, as the group and K-Pop as a genre have grown more popular in North America. Blackpink was prominently featured on Lady Gaga’s recent album Chromatica on the single “Sour Candy,” which reached Number 17 on Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Songs Chart.