In late May of 2020,
when the death of George Floyd
sparked outrage across the United States,
it seemed like every major corporation wanted to
"join the conversation", including Apple, Twitter,
Sony, Amazon, Nike, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Verizon,
Adobe, Zoom, T-Mobile, Alphabet, Nintendo.
You get the idea.
At one moment, all of corporate America
was trying to respond to this moment of anti-black racism,
but there was one company that really just,
their statement just stood out among the pack.
And that was Ben & Jerry's.
It wasn't just nice platitudes.
It was actually legislation that they were calling for.
But it's interesting if you go on
Ben and Jerry's Instagram page or Twitter account
they're constantly talking about these issues
and it's not just when they're prompted.
It's part of their actual mission.
What's going on is genocide.
And that mission
has been the cornerstone of the brand for over 30 years.
But I will tell you-
Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.
But does Ben & Jerry's,
which in the year 2000 became a subsidiary
of a multinational corporate conglomerate
really care about social justice
or is it all just a clever way to peddle more pints?
Hi, I'm Ben.
I'm Jerry.
You know, we may not have the money to go on TV
for 30 seconds,
but we sure do make some of the best ice cream
you ever tasted.
Look for us on top of every pint.
In 1978 when lifelong friends,
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield,
opened their first ice cream shop in Burlington, Vermont,
the brand wasn't focused on activism per se.
We never called it a social mission,
but the business was values driven
from the earliest days.
I don't know that we were hardcore hippies per se,
but we certainly believe in peace and love.
So when we started as a little homemade ice cream shop
our idea was to be a little corner store
that would be a community gathering place.
They would donate free ice cream
to nonprofit organizations,
people who are using the ice cream
to have celebrations or for fundraising events.
The policy was not to turn down anybody.
They were basically social justice activists
who had stumbled into making ice cream
and found that they had a lot of success at it.
And as the years went on,
they became more and more skilled and excited
to push various kinds of social causes.
Our feeling at the time was that essentially
business is a machine for making money,
and that if we want to be of as much service
to the community as possible,
what we need to do
is give away as much our profits as possible.
And so we started The Ben & Jerry's Foundation.
The Ben & Jerry's Foundation
would fund community organizations and local initiatives,
helping disadvantaged groups across the country.
And the foundation was to receive
seven and a half percent of the company's pre-tax profits.
Which was the highest percentage
of any publicly held company.
The corporate average is around one and a half percent.
I said 5%.
Ben said 10%, and we settled on seven and a half.
You know, the investment bankers, you know,
they were in disbelief,
because even 5% to them made no sense.
And soon the founders
began integrating their activism into products
like Peace Pops,
a popsicle that would fund a new anti-war charity,
an idea which in itself caused some conflict.
There was always a tension on the board of directors
between those who wanted to really commit
to pursuing social justice objectives.
And those who said no, really what we got to do
first of all, is make sure that we do a solid financial job
of selling ice cream, that we have good profits.
But over time, the guys and the business
tried to figure out how to incorporate
the values of the founders
more into the day to day business decisions.
And that was a real evolution over a long period of time,
with some arguing back and forth and some struggles,
but eventually led to the creation of a mission statement.
That's based on this concept
that was called Linked Prosperity.
The idea behind Linked Prosperity
is that as the company prospers,
everything and everyone it touches will prosper.
The company would have three goals
and the goals were equally important
and making a profit was only one of the goals.
The second goal was making the best quality
ice cream possible.
And the third goal was making a significant commitment
to social justice and the prosperity of the communities
that Ben & Jerry's served.
But the Linked Prosperity concept
wasn't entirely new.
The executives of businesses in the '50s and '60s
were considered members of the community
and their businesses were expected to support
their communities.
And they were looked down upon
if they did not participate as leaders
in the lives of their communities.
High up in a tower in Midtown Manhattan
are the offices of an unique organization,
devoted primarily not to making money,
but to giving it away wisely.
This started to change really in the late 1960s,
early 1970s.
The change in attitude was highly identified
with an economist named Milton Friedman.
I'm pleased to present the number one
selling book in America, "Free To Choose."
Please welcome the Nobel Laureate in Economics,
Milton Friedman.
And Milton Friedman's position
was that the purpose of business is to make profits.
If you do anything else besides making
as much profit as possible with your business,
you're doing it wrong.
Just tell me where in the world you find
these angels who are going to organize society for us?
Well, I don't even trust you to do that.
I studied that, you know, in college and as an MBA,
I didn't believe it then
and I certainly don't believe it now.
I never envisioned the integration of a social mission
into a business the way that Ben did.
I mean, I think he was really visionary, but in my mind,
and certainly in Ben's mind,
there's no way for a business to really be truly successful
if it's just focused on making money,
it needs to be mindful of its other constituencies,
its employees, its immediate community,
the broader community, even the world.
And I think Ben & Jerry's played an integral role
in hopefully putting to rest Milton Friedman's famous quote.
Cementing the company's priority
has allowed Ben & Jerry's to integrate
more social activism into the company's
day to day operation, like sourcing fair trade ingredients
even if it meant paying higher premiums,
partnering with socially responsible suppliers,
like a bakery in Yonkers,
providing jobs to formerly incarcerated
and low-income residents,
campaigning against artificial growth hormones for cows,
supporting LGBTQ rights, promoting environmental justice
and more.
It was really about fairness and justice
and standing up for people whose voices are often not heard.
And that's pretty different from a corporate approach.
But I think making ice cream allows us to talk with people
and connect with people about serious things
in a pretty fun way.
As you give, you receive, as you help others,
you're helped in return,
as your business helps the community,
the community supports your business.
Now that generated, you know,
a lot of favorable press,
which we think contributes to people wanting to support
and buy Ben & Jerry's ice cream,
but it didn't originate from people sitting
around in the marketing department saying,
hey you know, how can we generate some more press?
Still over the years,
the values triad, product, profit, and community,
proved to be a difficult balance to maintain,
especially with increasing pressure
to compete with other super premium ice cream brands.
As the company grew larger and larger
and the profit margins grew smaller and smaller,
more of the shareholders of Ben & Jerry's
began to question the company's commitment
to spending extra money on things like employee benefits
and charitable gifts and special arrangements with suppliers
in tropical countries.
As a publicly held company,
you know, if your stock price is not moving up
and you become an attractive takeover,
you're susceptible to that.
There were a number of businesses that, you know,
expressed an interest in the company,
Ben and Jerry and a number of people on the board
did not want to sell.
And they fought with the other directors for 18 months,
but they eventually lost,
because not selling would have meant laying off
probably 40% of their staff.
So they decided to sell to Unilever.
Unilever,
the multinational consumer goods conglomerate,
owns Axe, Dove, Lipton, and about 400 other brands.
The board was able to negotiate a very unique deal
in which a unique Ben & Jerry's board would remain
and they would have a say in who the CEO that Unilever
put in place was,
and Unilever committed to continue to donate
seven and a half percent to The Ben & Jerry's Foundation.
And then there were some very dark years
when Unilever really didn't manage Ben & Jerry's
very intelligently
and Ben and Jerry's has sort of lost its way.
But about 10 years ago,
Unilever and Ben & Jerry's
renegotiated their relationship and Ben & Jerry's
was allowed to fully recommit to the three-part mission.
So when that happened, Ben & Jerry's really took off.
And I think the company is about four times as large
in terms of sales now,
as it was when Unilever purchased it in the year 2000.
The Tonight Dough.
Some of the concepts that Ben and Jerry spoke of
early on that investment bankers you know, just, you know,
went white at, are now part of the vernacular
in how businesses operate today from the Fortune 500
on down.
Earlier this month,
Ben & Jerry's announced their support
for the Black Lives Matter Movement
Black Lives Matter members say
they question supporting businesses
who don't take stances against oppression.
There's a lot of data that shows
that customers are really looking for brands
and companies to respond to social activism.
And there was one stat that really stood out to me
that two thirds of Gen Z really look towards the brands
and how they respond to Black Lives Matter
and the way they react will permanently decide
how they spend with them in the future.
I think the company was able to speak out so strongly
and so clearly because it had been doing the work.
And so that led up to the George Floyd murder
and the company being able to say
we must dismantle white supremacy.
One of the most wonderful things
is that we had nothing to do with it.
People probably don't realize Ben and I work at the company,
but we're not involved in the management,
we're not involved in operations,
we're kind of pretty faces, you know,
we're Ben and Jerry,
and the company came out very strong and it was wonderful.
You can imagine how proud Ben and I are
that the company is doing things like that.