It seems Ben and Jerry's may be next in the firing line after they made waves with a provocative 4th of July tweet claiming the US is on stolen Indigenous land. Could we witness a downturn similar to Bud Light?
Or is their irresistibly good ice cream strong enough to keep their ship afloat?
Edit: Side note - in the absence of B&J, what ice cream are you turning to? I’m in AUS. So B&J was a game changer. Not anything else like it that I’m aware of.
Ben & Jerry's has always projected a Vermonter, hippy, psuedo-leftist image as a company (despite being owned by Unilever since 2000). This tweet is perfectly in line with that image, and the die-hard B&J fans probably won't bat an eye.
Haven’t we always known Ben & Jerry’s political stance? They’ve been pretty upfront about stuff, so I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone. I’d assume if people cared about their politics, they already wouldn’t be buying from them.
Back in 2016, I got to taste a new flavor from Ben & Jerry's called "Feel the Bern" which showed their support for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. Anyone who gets surprised that Ben & Jerry's is political hasn't been paying attention.
Then again, some people became shocked that Rage Against The Machine was political leading to a commenter asking "what machine did you think they were raging against?"
“what machine did you think they were raging against?”
The one that George Soros uses to print all those cheques, obviously.
Bud light saw a temporary drop in revenue because a big part of their market is right wing reactionary morons. Ben and Jerries doesn’t market towards those types, they’ve always been a relatively ethical and left(ish) leaning company. Saying something like ”the United States is on stolen indigenous land” will only make B&J’s more popular.
Also let’s not forget that Bud Light is just one of the several hundred brands that are owned by Anheuser Busch, the actual drop in revenue is basically nothing to them.
What down turn? Bud made more profit than average during the “boycott”
They slipped from #1 best selling beer for a quick minute, to be replaced by another InBev product. Good job, redcaps, you sure showed who’s boss around here.
It’s capital.
I think their sales did go down and a bunch of execs stepped down iirc
They also pulled support for Dylan Mulvaney and anything LGBT+
That whole arc feels bad
While Ben and Jerry were still running the joint, they had a policy that the highest paid employee would never earn more than five times that of the lowest. B&J have always been based as fuck.
I mean, just read their Wiki article; a 50% of it is about how socially conscious they are/were as a company.
I mean, it’s technically the truth. Unless you consider that the land was bought with a bunch of blankets. Anyway so what’s your favorite B&J flavor?
And it's not like it's a surprise that Ben & Jerry's are 'woke'. They were part of Bernie Sanders' campaign.
I’m all for raw cookie dough 😍
Ben & Jerry’s has been fairly socially progressive for a while, this is not their first campaign like this and it hasn’t seemed to really affect them yet. There’s also the fact that part of Bud Light’s problem was who their average consumer was. Not every company that does something like that will get the same treatment, but when you advocate for something that most of your customers will disagree with, it’ll cause you problems.
For example, take the Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks). They took a stand against the war in Iraq and made negative comments about George W. Bush. They were nowhere close to the first band/artist to this, but they saw the most backlash. But it’s because they were a country band so the majority of their fanbase supported the things the condemned.
Most brands would kill to "go down like Bud Light" considering they're more popular than ever.
That’s not what they are saying.
yea, brands are just lining up to get this kind of publicity
I mean nobody cares about Twitter bubble outrage IRL though. Bud Light is found everywhere at restaurants near me.
Seems the lgbtq+ are pretty outraged too. https://apnews.com/article/35db706836ca38d5fe194c93a3f641ff
Genuinely feel sorry for them being trotted out in an attempt to be used for profit. Then just abandoned when shit got Real.
B&J is already considered a liberal company, so I doubt conservatives could boycott it. To boycott, they would have to admit that they were buying it to begin with.
Ben & Jerry’s has always been very vocal about extremely progressive politics. I’m somewhat surprised anyone doesn’t know. They label themselves hippies from Vermont and do crazy things like pay their employees a living wage and advocate for other companies to do it. Big on environmental issues too. Their politics make it taste better.
As for me, I am proud of my country and salute the flag but the land was stolen and America perpetrated a genocide on the natives…100%.
Tarharka Brother’s Ice Cream out of Baltimore is the shit. And if you’re into gelato, try Gelato Fiasco out of Maine. Both are exquisite.
And Taharka's also a black-majority worker co-op in a city that's become something of a hotbed for that type of structure thanks in part to an anarchist bookstore paving the way.
And their Honey Graham should be classified as a controlled substance, it's that addictive.
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