Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has quit the company on social activism grounds as he claims the ice cream brand has been ‘silenced’ by its parent firm.
In a statement co-founder Ben Cohen shared on X, Greenfield said he was “profoundly disappointed” to “come to the conclusion that [the brand’s] independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, has gone”.
Last week, the two founders issued joint statements asking the board of The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) and Magnum’s potential investors to request that the brand be released from the conglomerate.
In the letters, Cohen and Greenfield expressed a similar sentiment: that their social justice mission had been “eroded” and that “the company’s voice has been muted”.
‘Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced’
The letter said that decisions “made by Unilever” which affect the brand’s advocacy include stances on Gaza, indigenous rights, the Trump administration, and DEI.
Ben and Jerry’s was bough by Unilever in 2000, but it is – along with Magnum and Wall’s – in the process of being spun off into The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
TMICC will list later this year, although Unilever will retain a 20 per cent stake for up to five years.
“For more than twenty years under [Unilever’s] ownership, Ben & Jerry’s stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights… not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world,” Greenfield said in his resignation statement.
“Our shared humanity has never been more important, and yet Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”
He said that Ben & Jerry’s has “always been about more than just ice-cream… it was a way to spread love and invite others into the fight for equity, justice and a better world”.