Speaker A
Sing along if you've heard this one, ♪ I scream, you scream ♪ ♪ We all scream for ice cream ♪ Ah, that's sweet, delicious nostalgia.
Ben & Jerry's blends ice cream with activism, championing social justice causes while growing their business for decades.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Activism can coexist with and even enhance business success.
- Clear, courageous stances on social issues resonate more than neutral or vague messaging.
- Digital platforms have transformed how companies engage supporters in activism.
- Internal diversity and culture are crucial to authentically reflecting a brand's social values.
- Sustained, systemic change requires ongoing commitment and action beyond symbolic gestures.
What the video covers
- Ben & Jerry's integrates progressive activism with its ice cream business, addressing issues like climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights.
- The company has taken bold stances, including opposing white supremacy and supporting Black Lives Matter.
- Ben & Jerry's activism goes beyond marketing, involving direct advocacy, legislative efforts, and partnerships with affected communities.
- The Head of Global Activism Strategy explains how digital tools have expanded their reach and impact since the 1990s.
- The brand differentiates between social responsibility and activism, emphasizing active engagement and systemic change.
- Despite risks, Ben & Jerry's believes their activism contributes to their sustained business success over 43 years.
- The company encourages clarity in values rather than trying to appease all audiences, especially on controversial issues.
- Ben & Jerry's began focused activism on systemic racism in 2015, inspired by events like Ferguson and Michael Brown's shooting.
- Internally, the company is working to improve diversity and align its internal culture with its external social mission.
- Executives advise other organizations to take courageous first steps toward activism to drive meaningful change.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction: Ice Cream and Activism
- 00:42Ben & Jerry's Bold Stance on White Supremacy
- 01:31Why Activism Matters for an Ice Cream Company
- 02:09Role of the Head of Global Activism Strategy
- 02:53Evolution of Ben & Jerry's Activism Approach
- 03:53Activism vs. Social Responsibility
- 04:46Business Impact of Taking a Stand
- 06:50Activism in Response to Racial Injustice
- 08:50Internal Challenges and Diversity Efforts
- 13:21Advice for Organizations Starting Activism Work
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
But what happens when individuals all over the United States are screaming for something other than ice cream?
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Screaming for equality, for justice, for a level playing field and the quality of life that we all have the right to live?
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At the intersection of activism and confectionary delight is none other than Ben and Jerry's.
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(orchestral music) Started by two schoolmates who self-identified as social outcasts, it's no surprise that the company has stood up for everything from climate change, to same-sex marriage, to Black Lives Matter, and defunding the police.
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And in June 2020, the brand took a bold and frank stance against white supremacy, proving that in business, silence is no longer an option.
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Creating real systemic change is a continuous journey that requires us to always keep taking steps forward, no matter how big or how small.
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This is the work in progress. But these actions aren't just mass emails and logo changes.
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Ben and Jerry's has been in the trenches with those negatively affected by American systems, challenging policymakers, actively pursuing changes in legislation, and pulling no punches when calling out the wrongdoings of those in power.
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All this while reckoning with the fact that their own backyard, South Burlington, Vermont, is one of the least diverse populations in the United States.
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But why? Why not just sell ice cream? I mean, everyone loves ice cream, right?
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It's literally one of the few things that we can all enjoy regardless of race, creed, color, or gender identity.
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To understand the purpose and the power of their activism, I spoke with the Head of Global Activism Strategy, Christopher Miller, and Global Social Mission Officer, Dave Rapaport, to talk about the realities of being a mission-driven brand, and what they're doing to change their internal culture
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to reflect the brand's own outward ideals. Let's start with this. You are the Head of Global Activism Strategy?
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Why on Earth, as an ice cream company, have a person like you within their walls?
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- It's a really good question. You know, Chris, I feel incredibly fortunate. I think I have one of the best jobs in corporate America.
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You know, my role is to build impactful advocacy and activism campaigns that advance the progressive values that Ben and Jerry's holds.
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And so over the course of the last eight years, we have essentially built a campaigning team inside a for-profit ice cream company.
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- You also have an interesting background with the company. It's fun to look at this longitudinal trajectory of yours.
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You started off as an assistant to Ben and Jerry. What's changed in terms of the activism angle?
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- A lot has changed and very little has changed. I think in terms of the overall approach, this idea that our company can essentially be a vehicle through which we can pursue progressive social change has not changed.
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What has changed are the ways in which we advance the work. So as you noted, I started at Ben and Jerry's back in 1996.
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And you know, at that time, at the company's annual shareholder meeting every year, there would be a large music festival, and Ben used to give away ice cream if you'd be willing to sign a petition to take action on an issue.
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If we got 3,000, 5,000 people to take action on a given day, that was an amazing success.
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We now have the ability through digital and social media channels to literally reach millions and millions of people instantly, and not just hit them with a message, but provide them with a way to take action, become supporters of our partners,
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and to join these movements for social change. And so I think the tools in the toolbox have changed, what we're trying to do hasn't.
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- It's beautifully stated. And I liked the differentiation between social responsibility and activism. You know, activism involves getting in the trenches, going and doing the hard work, getting your hands dirty, where, you know, it's not a fund.
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It's not, you know, oh, we stand in solidarity. So just walk us through what real activism is.
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- We start with what are our progressive values? What's the change we seek to make in the world?
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And then we build campaigns that are emotionally engaging, but are ultimately focused on having an impact in the world, and helping our fans become parts of these movements, and to take action in support of issues that address the root causes of problems.
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- In some circles, that might be arguable, right? Like there's a risk in sort of taking a stance or a perceived risk.
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I don't even know if it's true all the time, but there's also a fearlessness behind the actions that you decided to take.
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- We have taken some courageous stands and done some good work. I don't want to overstate the impact an ice cream company has on these big, important issues.
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But what I will say is that whether in the early '90s, being one of the only companies to speak out against the first Gulf War, to our early support of the Black Lives Matter Movement, to the work that we've been doing
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in the city of St. Louis to close the workhouse jail, we have taken a position on controversial issues and have done important work, and we have consistently grown this business year over year for 43 years.
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And so while it is counterintuitive, what I will tell you is, I believe that the work that we are doing is the reason Ben and Jerry's is as successful as it is.
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It's not a detriment or a drag to our success. But again, I think for most conventional marketing folks, for CMOs, and people who sit in the C-suite, it is a counterintuitive business strategy to think that taking a position on a controversial issue
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is going to do anything other than drive your business into the toilet. What I would say though, Chris, that I think is worth reflecting on is, I think if you look back at the events of last year, and the murder of George Floyd,
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and the protests that swept the nation through the summer, there are a bunch of companies that weighed in on those issues, and frankly, companies who kept their head down and didn't say anything, weren't really the subject of criticism.
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It was the companies and the brands and the organizations that tried to thread some mushy middle, that wanted to say something, but wanted to say something that didn't offend anybody.
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And I think that's where you run into trouble. You have to be clear about the things that you believe, and I think when you do that, you sort of let the chips fall where they will.
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- 2016, you guys were already a part of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and obviously 2020 kind of gave a rise to it, and gave a new voice, and the premise of the work in progress. What did you try to do in 2016,
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and then over that four-year period, what happened and what does 2020 look like?
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- We started on this work in earnest in 2015, in January 2015. We have an annual we call it global franchise meeting.
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So every January prior to COVID, we would all gather in some place relatively warm and sunny, the corporate staff and all of the independent owners and operators of Ben and Jerry's scoop shops around the world.
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And Ben and Jerry, at every meeting, have a part on the agenda where they address the whole crowd, and in January of 2015, in the wake of Ferguson and Michael Brown, and the string sort of high-profile string
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of shooting of unarmed Black men, Ben came to the stage in a T-shirt that said "Hands up, don't shoot," and spent about 40 minutes talking to all of us about the need for us to get engaged on these issues of systemic racism
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and police brutality. It was a moderately controversial thing to do within that group. There were people who walked out of that ballroom that day because they saw it as polarizing, as anti-cop.
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And those of us who sort of lead the advocacy and activism work and the social mission work at Ben and Jerry's sort of left that ballroom and said, "Ben's right.
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You know, he challenged us.
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We at Ben and Jerry's believe that words matter, and that giving voice and lifting up the voices and the frames of those who've been impacted by these issues is our role.
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And so I think using that kind of language is important. We have to mainstream that kind of language.
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People have to understand our history, and the impacts of that history, and how it's created the future that we're living today.
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If we have any chance of building a brighter and more just future. So, you know, it's not always comfortable.
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We need collectively, as a nation, to become a little bit more comfortable being uncomfortable.
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- You also have this history of kind of doing it the Ben and Jerry's way, right?
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And that's all like historically, when sort of GMOs was an issue, and there were people in cow costumes sent to, you know, combat the legislation.
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There's this, like, there's a playfulness to it, even though there are some levels of severity of seriousness in issues, how do you balance just being yourselves, and also taking up root and causes and issues?
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- One of the reasons why I believe that we can be an ally to those who are leading this work, is because we speak to a little bit different audience than many of the civil society groups, and activists and allies that we work with.
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We have access to this kind of mainstream general population that is not necessarily the case with some of our partners and allies, right?
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I spent part of my career leading the climate change campaign at Greenpeace U.S. You know, Greenpeace is good at sort of, you know, culture jamming and hanging banners off of stuff, and making noise, which helps elevate issues.
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But if you're a supporter of Greenpeace, by definition, you care about the environment, you wanna save the whales, you care about climate change.
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People love us because they really did Chunky Monkey. And that's the sort of opportunity here, is that we can engage this sort of more mainstream general population in a way that is potentially able to lend some of these issues that our fans might not otherwise
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have access to. And so I think that unique corporate tone of voice that we have is part of the magic, but not everything we do could be cow puns, 'cause you know, I think a lot of these issues
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that we're working on have a level of seriousness and gravity to them that, you know, but it's, we walk a balance on that stuff.
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- While Ben and Jerry's has been in the fight for equality and justice publicly for a long time, that's not to say that internally they'd been without their own struggles.
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Particularly considering where they're based in one of the whitest states in the country. Dave Rapaport, the brand's Global Social Mission Officer is focusing on improving that.
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From HQ right through to their distribution network. Tell me, what does a Global Social Mission Officer do aside tie my tongue?
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- Well, the, the social mission is part of Ben and Jerry's three-part mission that really intertwines and drive the business.
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So we have the economic mission, the product mission, and the social mission. And what we do on our team is advance the values that really we inherited from our co-founders, and we now articulate as social and economic justice,
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human rights and dignity, and environmental protection, restoration, and regeneration. - Now internally, right? You know, there's some work being done, the work in progress around increasing the diversity within the walls of Ben and Jerry.
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Can you tell us about what's being done, and also where you're starting from? - Sure, well, we have to be frank, and understand that we're starting from a place of being still an overwhelmingly white organization, and it's really, we don't define it as much
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about diversity as racial equity, and equity is about outcomes and not simply opportunity. And the fact that we are so overwhelmingly white, not just in our employee base, but in our franchise network and our supplier base means that we've got a lot of work to do.
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You know, we understand that you are either racist or anti-racist, and until we can achieve the equity we're striving for, we have to face the fact that we have systemic institutional racism is still embedded in the company.
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And so we've really been diving down deeply to understand what the root causes of that institutional racism still are, and develop strategies to be able to address those causes.
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- So for the naysayer that might go, "Ah, that's Ben and Jerry, or that's Dave Rapaport, "he's been doing this forever." How, what advice do you give those individuals to like take that first step, and make this happen in their own organizations?
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- Well, I think maybe the biggest thing is to listen to our employees. You know, we know that millennials and Gen Z really care about bringing their values to work just like they do increasingly in the grocery store
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in and all their interactions. I think everybody has a hunger to certainly today more than ever to ensure that there's justice in society and in their workplace.
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And so listen to your folks, go into it really understanding that real change needs to be made, that there is no neutral on a moving train.
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You're either racist or you're anti-racist. Let yourself have those conversations that may feel at first uncomfortable and difficult to have, but you gotta have them get comfortable with that discomfort, and I think in doing so, you know, we all actually end up
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feeling a lot more at ease and can work together to make the progress that we need to make.
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But the first step obviously has to be making an authentic effort to change things.
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- So Dave, the words abolish white supremacy are almost synonymous at this point in time with Ben and Jerry's.
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You as a white person, what steps do you take and how do you internalize that and act on it?
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- Well, listen, I come from a place, I have come to understand in recent years, more so than I ever had before a great privilege.
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And there are things about the lived experience of being Black in America, for example, that I'll never know but what I have come to learn, and what I do believe is that in order to end white supremacy, it's white people would have to change.
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I don't apologize, you know, for doing this work as a white man, but I hope that I can do it in a way that genuinely does bring about real equity, ensures that the voices and the power of Black people,
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Indigenous people, other people of Color can be heard, and that we can all work together to bring the change that we all so desperately need.
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- Give me a little fist bump on that one, let me see. (chuckles) Boom.
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(calm music) When I think about ice cream, I'm definitely not thinking about activism. I'm definitely not thinking about the founders, and you know, Dave or Chris getting arrested, and being a part of political activism.
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So that was one of the biggest surprising things that you know, when I think about Ben and Jerry's, I literally think Chunky Monkey, and Cherry Garcia and just fun, and, you know, but I think that is a grounds
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for any brand or any person to learn from in terms of how to do activism for themselves.
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So from farming to manufacturing, to the franchisees, Ben and Jerry's is really focused on diversity at every touchpoint, even down to like who gets business loans to start their own version of Ben and Jerry's.
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So, you know, it's a lot of work to look at the entire ecosystem, and I'm happy that somebody like Ben and Jerry's is doing it.
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(calm music ending)
Topics:Ben & Jerry'sactivismsocial justiceBlack Lives Mattercorporate activismprogressive valuesclimate changeLGBTQ+ rightsbusiness strategydiversity and inclusion
