Ben and Jerry’s like to tout themselves as old-fashioned hippies takin’ on the man, man. The reality is quite different, of course: they’re really just another bunch of greedy one-percenters, multinationally chasing the Benjamins around the world.
In fact, the “hippies” had no compunction in selling their souls to the biggest “bread-heads” on the face of the planet, gargantuan multinational Unilever — a $51 billion Dr Evil. Dylan and Jefferson Airplane may have sung about the evils of “Sergeant Dow-Jones” and the “Masters of War”, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield just shut up and took the money.
Well, not quite shut up.
Being the two-faced hippies they are, Ben and Jerry’s have always hidden their capitalist greed behind a firewall of brand-washing “activism”.
Ben & Jerry’s US activism manager Jabari Paul explained during a panel talk at the Cannes Lions advertising conference that part of Ben & Jerry’s mission was to make its customers more socially conscious. “It’s all about turning our fans, who may come to our platforms because they’re only interested in ice cream, into activists, by trying to move them up the ladder of engagement,” Paul told the panel […]
The company is also known for its special-promotion flavours, designed to raise awareness and generate funds to be donated to charitable organisations. This began in 1988 when Ben & Jerry’s released Rainforest Crunch, a cashew and Brazilian nut flavour, which was sold to raise funds to help indigenous people in Brazil establish a “nut shelling cooperative”. However, the brand was criticised at the time for only donating around 5pc of the profits to the cooperative.
Undeterred, Ben & Jerry’s released One Sweet Whirled, a caramel and coffee-flavour ice cream with marshmallows, caramel swirls, and coffee-fudge chunks, which was meant to raise awareness to global warming. Some profits from the flavour were donated to the Save Our Environment organisation. It was followed by Save Our Swirled in 2015, which inspired 300,000 ice cream customers to sign a petition lobbying governments to use more clean energy.
Ahead of the Australian gay marriage referendum in 2017, Ben & Jerry’s shops in that country refused to serve two scoops of the same ice cream until marriage equality was legalised. It also rebranded some of its flavours to support gay marriage.
Telegraph
But, as their corporate overlords are finding to their disgruntlement, “Get Woke, Go Broke” is more than just a right-wing slogan. From its peak in 2014, the brand’s share value has plunged by half. A few brief rallies have been followed by yet more falls. The share price remains well above what it was when Unilever acquired the business, but the long-term trend is not promising.
But if Unilever thinks it can shuck off an apparent corporate albatross, the Big Breadheads have another thing coming.
Unilever faces an uphill battle to sell Ben & Jerry’s, with lawyers warning that the ice-cream brand’s Left-wing political activism could pose problems for any prospective buyer.
In its haste to acquire the company in 2000, Unilever loaded themselves with a dog of a deal.
Unilever agreed to allow Ben & Jerry’s an independent board, with majority representation for the directors of the ice cream brand, ultimately handing control of decision-making to a group known for taking strong political stands.
Last summer Ben & Jerry’s sparked a row with Israel by saying it would stop selling ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories, as it was “inconsistent with our values for our product to be present within an internationally recognised illegal occupation”.
Lawyers claim the stance by the ice cream brand puts Unilever at risk of sanctions and penalties over potential breaches of US and Israeli law, including anti-boycott laws in the US and discrimination legislation in Israel.
Jesse Fried, Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, said any new buyer for Ben & Jerry’s would “step into the shoes of Unilever and inherit the current board arrangement, as the merger agreement binds Unilever as well as any successors”.
Telegraph
Good luck trying to sell that deal to anyone with half a brain.