Golden Gaytime (Cookie Crumble in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

) is a popular ice cream snack that is made and distributed by the

Streets Streets is the plural of street, a type of road. Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music * Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh * ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...

confectionery company in Australia, and first released in 1959. It is a toffee and vanilla ice cream dipped in

compound chocolate Compound chocolate is a product made from a combination of cocoa, vegetable fat and sweeteners. It is used as a lower-cost alternative to true chocolate, as it uses less-expensive hard vegetable fats such as coconut oil or palm kernel oil in pl ...

, and wrapped in vanilla biscuit-like "crumbs" on a wooden paddlepop-stick. Its name has survived intact regardless, or because, of the possible homosexual connotations in modern decades.

Variations

On 4 August 2015, Streets released Golden Gaytime ice-cream tub format in addition to its usual popsicle stick format, as well as selling a tub of the ice cream's crumbs on the side. On 7 September 2016, Streets released the Golden Gaytime cross Cornetto cone – named Golden Gaynetto – in addition to other formats. In 2017, Streets released a Golden Gaytime ice-cream sandwich named the Golden Gaytime Sanga ("Sanga" being

Australian slang Australian English is a major variety of the English language spoken throughout Australia. Most of the vocabulary of Australian English is shared with British English, though there are notable differences. The vocabulary of Australia is drawn ...

for sandwich). A rainbow variant was also created in support of the LGBT community in 2017. In the summer of 2020, several locations in Melbourne and Sydney held pop-up stores that contained various exclusive crumb variations, ranging from vanilla crumb, musk sticks, strawberry hard candy, popping candy and edible glitter, to vanilla crumb, pretzel bits and salted caramel drizzle. Gaytime has also collaborated with various other companies to release Gaytime-flavoured versions of their products, including Gaytime

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...

donuts, Gaytime

Coco Pops Cocoa Krispies (also known as Choco Krispis, Choco Krispies, Coco Pops, Choco Pops depending on region) is a breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's, coming both as a boxed cereal and as a snack bar with a 'dried milk' covered bottom. It is a c ...

, and various Gaytime dessert mixes made by Green's baking, including mousse, cake, brownies and brookies.

Flavours

Various flavours have been introduced, especially in the mid-2010s onwards, with some exclusive to particular stores (

doughnut flavoured Golden Gaytime was initially released exclusively in Australian 7-Eleven stores). A plant-based version suitable for

vegans Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. D ...

was introduced in September 2022.

Advertising

The company appears to embrace the camp name by retaining the tagline from the 1980s, "It's hard to have a Gaytime on your own". The in-home boxes feature the words "4 delicious chances to have a gay time". Ads featuring the slogan also occasionally featured men who would accidentally get into risqué positions whilst trying to get a Gaytime. In 2009, Streets started re-airing a television commercial from the 1980s.

Cultural impact

The double meaning of the name is highlighted in The Bedroom Philosopher song " Golden Gaytime". In 2018, several Indonesians attempted to boycott Unilever over the product due to its name and the rainbow variant in 2017 that was released to support the LGBT community. Unilever Indonesia released a statement in support of the boycotters, but also pointing out that Gaytimes have never been sold in Indonesia. In early 2021, an online petition to change the product's name to something "less offensive" gained traction on social media. However, it was met with backlash by the general public, including counterpetitions, and the original petition to rename was withdrawn. Streets has stated that they won't change the product's name. In the same year, the name of the product was criticised by a Muslim association in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

References

{{Unilever Australian confectionery Ice cream brands Unilever brands Australian brands

Variations

Flavours

Advertising

Cultural impact

See also

References