Klondike Brand Guidelines: The Silver Square, the Polar Bear & ‘What Would You Do?’

Klondike is a square of ice cream in a silver wrapper — with a polar bear.

Klondike’s identity is unusually well-defined for an ice cream: a square block of vanilla ice cream in a thin chocolate coating, wrapped in a distinctive silver foil wrapper with a polar bear mascot. The square shape, the crisp chocolate shell, the silver-and-blue wrapper and the polar bear are all instantly recognisable — a rare case where a novelty ice cream has a genuinely ownable form and identity. (A precise, honest note: today’s US “Original” is technically a “frozen dairy dessert” rather than “ice cream,” though everyone describes it as a vanilla ice cream bar.) (Honest caveats: the wordmark’s typeface isn’t documented, so don’t name a font; and no official brand hex is published — the palette is silver and blue.)

Klondike’s modern fame comes from one of advertising’s catchiest slogans: “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” — debuted with the brand’s national rollout in 1982, and built around ads challenging people to do something silly (sing, dance, act like a chicken) to earn a bar. It turned a simple square of ice cream into a fun, participatory cultural catchphrase, and it’s still in use decades later.

The brand is older than the slogan. Klondike was created by the Isaly Dairy Company (the Isaly family, Swiss-immigrant dairymen) in Mansfield, Ohio, in the early 1920s (commonly dated to 1922; the Isaly’s chain spanned Ohio and western Pennsylvania). The name references the Klondike River of the Yukon in Canada and the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush — chosen to evoke cold, ice and the frozen north (a perfect fit for a frozen treat, and the reason for the polar bear and silver, icy livery). On ownership: Klondike was long a Unilever brand (via its Good Humor-Breyers business) and, following Unilever’s December 2025 demerger of its ice cream division, now sits within The Magnum Ice Cream Company. A square, a polar bear, and a question everyone knows.

Klondike lives in silver and blue. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Klondike’s palette is silver and blue — the metallic silver of the foil wrapper and the cool blues of ice and the frozen north, with a friendly polar bear. That icy, metallic scheme is perfectly on-theme: it evokes cold, frost and the Yukon (the source of the name), and it makes the bar look refreshing and premium on a freezer shelf. The silver wrapper in particular is a genuinely ownable signature. It’s a cool, wintry, appetising palette that ties directly to the brand’s frozen-north identity. The honest caveat: Klondike publishes no official public brand hex — the silver and blue here are approximations of that icy look rather than a confirmed spec.

The lesson is a palette that matches the name and theme. Klondike’s silver-and-blue, icy scheme reinforces its Yukon name and frozen-treat nature at a glance. For designers, it’s a reminder that a palette rooted in a brand’s name and theme (cold, ice, the frozen north) feels coherent and instantly communicates what the product is. The takeaways: root the palette in the brand’s name and theme (silver and icy blue for a frozen-north name); use a distinctive material as a signature (the silver wrapper); and treat specific hexes as approximate when no official spec is published.

The wordmark is a strong sans — bold and cool.

Klondike’s strong, bold sans wordmark is confident and cool. Solid, chunky letterforms read as substantial and fun — fitting for a hearty square of chocolate-coated ice cream — and set against the silver-and-blue wrapper, they feel crisp and refreshing. There’s no delicacy here; the type is bold and friendly, matching a brand that’s playful (the “what would you do?” challenge) and substantial (a big square bar). The wordmark works with the polar bear and the icy palette to signal cold, fun and indulgence. (Because the exact face isn’t documented, the honest description is “a strong sans,” not a named font.) The type behaves like the brand: bold, cool and fun — a wordmark for a chunky, frozen treat.

Klondike turned a simple square into a cultural catchphrase.

Klondike is a lesson in a great slogan turning a simple product into a cultural fixture. The Klondike Bar is, at heart, a square of vanilla ice cream in chocolate — but the question “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” transformed it into a fun, participatory catchphrase that everyone knows and quotes. That single, brilliant slogan gave a modest novelty ice cream enormous cultural presence and staying power, and it works because it’s interactive — it invites people to imagine (or perform) something silly for a reward. Paired with a genuinely ownable identity (the square, the silver wrapper, the polar bear), the slogan made Klondike a household name.

For designers and brand-builders, Klondike offers a clear takeaway: a memorable, participatory slogan can give a simple product outsized cultural presence. The lessons: a single great catchphrase (“what would you do…?”) can define a brand and outlast decades; make it interactive to invite participation and memorability; and back it with a distinctive, ownable identity (the square shape, the silver wrapper, the polar bear, the icy palette) so the product is as recognisable as the line. It’s also a reminder to keep the facts precise — the Klondike Bar is a square, silver-wrapped, chocolate-coated ice cream (now a “frozen dairy dessert” in the US); “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” debuted in 1982; it was created by the Isaly Dairy Company in Mansfield, Ohio, in the early 1920s; the name references the Yukon’s Klondike; and it’s a Unilever brand now under The Magnum Ice Cream Company. Klondike turned a square into a catchphrase — proof that a great, participatory slogan can be a brand’s superpower.

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