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I'm Carol Cohn, and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
Chris Miller of Ben & Jerry's discusses how ice cream drives authentic activism and social change in this Purpose 360 podcast episode.
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
- Authentic activism requires aligning with core company values and building deep partnerships with civil society.
- Ben & Jerry's dedicates significant resources and marketing efforts to activism, demonstrating business commitment beyond philanthropy.
- Activism can be integrated into brand identity and product offerings to engage consumers meaningfully.
- There is never a bad time for companies to start doing the right thing and engaging in social change.
- Effective activism is a combination of strategic issue selection, credible partnerships, and transparent communication.
What the video covers
- Carol Cone hosts a conversation with Chris Miller, Head of Global Activism Strategy at Ben & Jerry's, on the role of activism in business.
- Ben & Jerry's uses ice cream as a platform to promote social justice, environmental sustainability, and systemic change.
- The company runs numerous global activism campaigns, dedicating 15% of its advertising budget to support these efforts.
- Ben & Jerry's maintains its core values and activism ethos through a covenant in its sale to Unilever.
- Chris Miller shares his background in advocacy and emphasizes the importance of authentic, values-driven activism.
- The brand collaborates deeply with civil society partners to amplify impact beyond philanthropy.
- Ben & Jerry's activism includes campaigns responding to events like the murder of George Floyd and local initiatives such as closing the Workhouse prison in St. Louis.
- The company integrates activism into its marketing, product development, and corporate culture.
- Authenticity and credibility stem from aligning activism with the company’s founding values and engaging employees with advocacy expertise.
- The podcast encourages listeners and brands to get involved in social causes without waiting for perfect alignment.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Purpose 360 and Chris Miller
- 03:29Discussion on the importance of activism
- 06:32Value of partnerships beyond philanthropy
- 12:28Activism campaigns and marketing strategies
- 18:26Authenticity and team expertise in activism
- 21:17Protecting Ben & Jerry's ethos post-Unilever sale
- 24:35Collaboration with NGOs and civil society
- 30:01Activism impact and future outlook
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
provocative conversation with Christopher Miller head of global activism strategy at Ben and Jerry's we're going to explore what does Cutting Edge activism look like today how do you find the right issues to engage with why our values based actions
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Today's segment is just going to be yummy, yummy for the brain and yummy for the soul because we have a provocative conversation with Christopher Miller, head of global activism strategy at Ben and Jerry's.
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the sale it allows them to retain their core soul and ethos they have a wonderful sustainability report and I will put some a link in it in our show notes for you to take a look at it I always do by the numbers in our
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We're going to explore what cutting-edge activism looks like today, how do you find the right issues to engage with, why are values-based actions so critically important, and how do you be authentic?
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in response to the murder of George Floyd 66 unique activism campaigns run globally one vote by the board of Alders in the city of St Louis where they had a very focused campaign you're going to be absolutely mesmerized by Chris talking
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Well, Ben and Jerry's is absolutely authentic, the company as we all know and love the ice cream, founded in 1978, sold to Unilever in 2000, and because of a very special covenant that they built into the sale, it allows them to retain their core soul and ethos.
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the purpose of the company we use ice cream to change the world and of course we love their flavors and every year there's a different top ten but the number one flavor in 2021 was brownie batter core and I'd
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They have a wonderful sustainability report, and I will put a link in our show notes for you to take a look at it. I always do by the numbers in our segments, but I want to talk here about the activism numbers for Ben and Jerry's.
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wonderful Harvard Business review article the reality is there's never a bad moment to start doing the right thing and in fact we need you to get involved this is not an exercise to find the perfect brand cause fit
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3.3 million page views with an average time on the site of 5.14 minutes, and that was in response to their statement, their in-your-face statement in response to the murder of George Floyd.
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what it can't be is nothing so join me with this discussion on activism with Chris Miller from Ben and Jerry's so Chris welcome to the show thanks Carol it's really great to be here so Chris I have to be very um candid is
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66 unique activism campaigns run globally, one vote by the board of aldermen in the city of St. Louis where they had a very focused campaign. You're going to be absolutely mesmerized by Chris talking about it to close the Workhouse prison.
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know I need erotics in the group and you've got um Gary hershberg and um Jeffrey Hollander who I know that you were at um Seventh Generation for a while I guess Jeff was gone by then so um it's just wonderful to see the
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15% of all Ben and Jerry's advertising dollars go to support activism campaigns globally, and there were almost 200,000 actions taken on BenAndJerry.com, representing a 68% increase over 2019.
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really aren't the most Progressive they know they have to get involved in society and the environment and I want us not only to titillate them a bit um inform them and inform them a lot so that's where we're going to go with this
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The purpose of the company: we use ice cream to change the world, and of course, we love their flavors. Every year there's a different top ten, but the number one flavor in 2021 was Brownie Batter Core.
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know I believe I have one of the best jobs in the world I I lead the the sort of strategy development for the advocacy and activism work at a company that has a 44 year history of of using its
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I'd just like to end with this comment because so many of our clients and colleagues in the industry, and when we go to conferences, they say, "Well, what issue do we pick?"
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responsibility right they they were doing this they they sort of pioneered it absolutely a business model that that didn't exist prior uh to them sort of rethinking the role of business and so I'm incredibly privileged to to get to
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As Chris Miller said in a very wonderful Harvard Business Review article, the reality is there's never a bad moment to start doing the right thing.
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brand and and it's it's a great privilege to to get to do it and talk a little bit about your background because it's not your tradition it's not a comms background per se you've got an advocacy background so just anybody who's
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In fact, we need you to get involved. This is not an exercise to find the perfect brand-cause fit.
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from the sort of policy and advocacy background I started my career on the staff of of Congressman Bernie Sanders I spent half a dozen years at Greenpeace hanging activists off of coal plants you know my my background is not in
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If you don't know what you want to do, talk to your staff, get people together, create the space for this discussion around values.
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marketing Communications talent that exists at the company those two things together create I think the the authenticity The credibility uh uh that we have uh in doing this work and how many people on your team no we have
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You could decide that your thing will be the Humane Society. It could be packing lunches. It can be anything.
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people are people that almost exclusively come from Civil Society NGO uh advocacy and activism role I want to dive into authenticity here because I think that that's a lot of what we can add to the discussion for all of those
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What it can't be is nothing. So join me with this discussion on activism with Chris Miller from Ben and Jerry's.
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ground you've gotta you know have a relationship so why is that important because I think companies today in general yeah I'm gonna donate some money to the not-for-profit and I'm gonna put their logo in in my stories but it's got
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So Chris, welcome to the show.
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Allies that we're with to help them mainstream their ideas and their campaigns and so we're an ice cream company we are not experts on the best way to reimagine Public Safety right but but we work with people who are and so
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Thanks, Carol. It's really great to be here.
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we work with and so and I believe that there is exponentially more value to our partners in that kind of relationship than simply a philanthropic one because we have access to resources and skills that our civil society Partners just wouldn't
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So Chris, I have to be very candid, is that I am basically a peer to Ben and Jerry, hung out with them in the earliest days when we were all members of the Social Venture Network.
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really able to add much more value and expertise than would be the case if we were simply writing a check and it builds obviously a much deeper relationship between Ben and Jerry's and the people that we're working with and that really that that's
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I can remember being across the table from them. They're so funny, and you know, I need erotics in the group, and you've got Gary Hirshberg and Jeffrey Hollander, who I know that you were at Seventh Generation for a while.
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are often on the front lines impacted by the issues that we're working on and so I think that that's the critical component to to this kind of authenticity and credibility that that that you know what cruise to the work that we
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I guess Jeff was gone by then, so it's just wonderful to see the commitment of Ben and Jerry's.
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that you want to see systemic change so I'd love you to say not that you have one favorite campaign you have many but could you talk about one or two where you were edit for a number of years and
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What I want to do today is really discuss activism and especially take all of your wisdom and share it with our listeners because our listeners are not at the cutting edge like Ben and Jerry's.
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we're a national we're a global brand um and Company and you know in the United States we've been working on issues of systemic racism broadly but more specifically focused in recent years on issues of Public Safety and police and the need to sort of rethink
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You know, they really aren't the most progressive. They know they have to get involved in society and the environment, and I want us not only to titillate them a bit, inform them, and inform them a lot.
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the capacity to pick a handful of places one or two places where we can get on the ground support Grassroots work and then and use that as an example to tell a larger story about the kinds of reforms that are necessary nationally so
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So that's where we're going to go with this.
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hundred years old uh you know unair-conditioned miserable in the summer just a horrible Place uh the the population in the prison was about 96 black so it way over indexed against the population and remarkably almost everyone in that prison over 95
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So first, let's just talk about you.
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Louis in many ways represents everything is wrong with our criminal justice system and also sort of really tests what people think of our Criminal Justice System most people believe that you're innocent until proven guilty the idea that you could spend and I think in the
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Who is Chris Miller, and tell me about this very kind of interesting and different role that you have at Ben and Jerry's.
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system works and and so um a a local Coalition of groups and Advocates led by a woman who spent time in the workhouse prison uh had an incredibly uh Dynamic and compelling campaign focused on getting the city of
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Thanks again for having me, Carol. It's great to be here, and you know, I believe I have one of the best jobs in the world.
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services that really support healthier and safer communities things like job training housing access access to substance use disorder treatment Etc it was a two and a half year campaign that ultimately led to the the board of aldermen voting to
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I lead the sort of strategy development for the advocacy and activism work at a company that has a 44-year history of using its platform to advance progressive social change.
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the the jail would be redundant they they didn't need it and so that's in fact what they what they've done in the city of St Louis and so we were able to bring a whole host of tools to that campaign
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As you noted, you know, and you go back way back with Ben and Jerry and a number of Anita and Jeffrey, those who really rode the first wave of corporate social responsibility, right?
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citizens we show up with ice cream and we draw a crowd we have our marketing and media budgets right so we were able to do a a Target certain constituencies in the city of St Louis with messages on
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They were doing this. They sort of pioneered it, absolutely a business model that didn't exist prior to them rethinking the role of business.
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morning TV to talk about the issue and and and the head of the campaign joined Ben and Jerry on those media visits our CEO did a a an op-ed in the St Louis Post-Dispatch the most widely read newspaper in the city of St Louis so we
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So I'm incredibly privileged to get to continue to evolve and innovate the way in which a corporation like Ben and Jerry's can be a part of advancing progressive social change in the world while at the same time building a strong and beloved brand.
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a really important win there and so how did you when when that win happened one how did you communicate it both internally to your team as well as externally and then how did it make you feel you know the most gratifying thing
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It's a great privilege to get to do it.
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long and at the bottom they thanked a handful of organizations and people for being a part of this important win and they thanked Ben and Jerry's seeing you know this Global ice cream company you know the fact that these activists
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Talk a little bit about your background because it's not your tradition. It's not a comms background per se. You've got an advocacy background.
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on a couple of occasions so folks inside the company were very familiar with the work that we were doing there and the people involved so I think you know folks internally took a lot of Pride and ultimately you know
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So just anybody who's listening, they go, "Boy, I want that job."
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that can win real tangible victories that make a real difference in people's lives and and really to see what happened in the city of St Louis as a model for other communities around country thank you it's an amazing story
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I think part of what makes the magic happen at Ben and Jerry's is that we marry people with the skills and background of folks like me.
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incredibly well to the the kind of content that we create around these campaigns I think it's you know so often in in business school I and I know this because I'm the colleagues that I work with you know the sort of standard
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I really come from the sort of policy and advocacy background. I started my career on the staff of Congressman Bernie Sanders.
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we're not one thing we're like a person we're we're multifaceted we are Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon where you know Colin Kaepernick and fish and Cherry Garcia and we're for reforming our approach to Public Safety and for you
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I spent half a dozen years at Greenpeace hanging activists off of coal plants.
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we're fun we're Whimsical and we're very serious and and so you know what I know is that if you look at the way in which people interact with us on our digital and social channels versus our competitors we are something like
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My background is not in corporate communications. I don't have an MBA.
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competitors and it's because we're so multifaceted and because we believe all of these things I want our listeners to hear that because Chris you're talking about this multi-dimensional and that you're not just one thing you're not like this is our you know
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I think why it works so well now at Ben and Jerry's is because we take people that have skills like me and we marry them with the world-class marketing communications talent that exists at the company.
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um I've had Paul on the on the podcast with this great book net positive the day that sale was announced by the way and I don't think any of your listeners know this that your sale acquisition by Unilever was the same day as the
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Those two things together create, I think, the authenticity, the credibility that we have in doing this work.
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keep Slim Fast which they made the wise decision so can you talk a little bit about how you protect it um Ben and Jerry's and your soul when you sold to Unilever because I think a lot of us in the purpose Universe said
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How many people on your team?
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within the the larger parent company to operate independently to control its own destiny to to own uh the the social Mission uh to this incredibly unique acquisition agreement that was negotiated between the parties at the time and and it is
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We have activism managers in nine countries around the world: six in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
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fiduciary responsibility for Ben and Jerry's went to Unilever um however the company was public and had a board of directors and that board of directors was retained and and to this day that independent board of directors has legal
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In addition to some regional support folks in Europe, there's about a dozen folks whose focus is on activism and advocacy at the company.
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you know Ben and Jerry's has has proven this model there can be no debate that purpose somehow provides or creates friction or tension against one's ability to return to shareholders and there's been some conversation in the Press recently about you know our
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Those people are people that almost exclusively come from civil society, NGO, advocacy, and activism roles.
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of the company let there be no mistake that that one can pursue a purpose one can be a part of advanced sustainability advancing social justice while at the same time building a very strong uh and and profitable business
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I want to dive into authenticity here because I think that's a lot of what we can add to the discussion for all of those companies who are not quite that progressive like Ben and Jerry's.
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you're the makeup of your employee base especially in Burlington Vermont is mostly white and so you really grow drill down into you put teams together you brought in experts to look at racial equity and can you just talk a little bit about
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You talked about that they come from civil society, and I know in some of your previous interviews you talk about that you really need to work with NGOs on the ground.
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maybe about about the race area because you did it not just that area did other areas as well this is something I really learned from I I did at my time at seven generation work which Jeffrey Jeffrey was still in the company when I when I
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You've got to have a relationship. So why is that important?
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Generations screwing it up getting it wrong not meeting its goals right and and I think people really gravitated to it I think that level of corporate transparency that says here's what we're trying to do here's where we're getting
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Because I think companies today, in general, say, "Yeah, I'm going to donate some money to the nonprofit, and I'm going to put their logo in my stories," but it's got to go way farther than that.
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because nobody's perfect no company's perfect and I think it creates some level of of trust when you're willing to talk about not just where you're nailing it but where you're not so you know to your point on this issue of equity
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Our approach is very different. Our approach is not one based on a model of philanthropy.
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advocacy and social mission to your point our company's headquartered in the second widest state in the country and our employee base frankly reflects the community in which it sits and so you know we have gone about very strategically over the last few years
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I think we have an enormous platform at Ben and Jerry's, and we have the ability for our partners and the allies that we're with to help them mainstream their ideas and their campaigns.
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outside of Vermont how do we how do we bring talent to the company but not necessarily require them to be sitting at the corporate headquarters and certainly you know we've all come to understand that you know zoom and
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So we're an ice cream company. We are not experts on the best way to reimagine public safety, but we work with people who are.
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know shook up the leadership team a little bit to to to help us more quickly uh bring this part of our our values more squarely into the way in which the business is being operated which is great and I also love
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Our approach is to take the strategies of our partners and bring the unique set of tools that we have as a for-profit ice cream company to bear to help advance the strategies of our partners and the movements that we work with.
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so so I think that again just you know drilling down into some of the the things that that are authentic to you your policies in addition to the external I think that's wonderful alignment um just for a little break on levity
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I believe that there is exponentially more value to our partners in that kind of relationship than simply a philanthropic one because we have access to resources and skills that our civil society partners just wouldn't have access to.
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flavors come and go it's an unsung hero in the Ben and Jerry's flavor portfolio it's called vanilla caramel fudge and Ben and Jerry's is known for super chunky flavors vanilla caramel fudge is one of the few smooth flavors so it's
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We have a team at Ben and Jerry's that focuses on consumer and public insights.
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the top 10 flavors which is great and actually there's a flavor that's kind of pays homage to me because I'm Carol cone c-o-n-e and you have the americone dream that you develop with Stephen Colbert that's right um and there's a great bit um we'll put
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We have the ability to spend sizable portions of our marketing budget in support of this work.
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another thing I'm going to play play off my name yes so thanks so much um getting back to a little more serious discussion um you talk a lot about values and alignment of values of your employees your customers so I'd love you
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So we're really able to add much more value and expertise than would be...
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company values and they are very much rooted in the things that our co-founders believe and the values of our co-founders and so our values are not a function of polling or Focus grouping employees it's not our values are not
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somehow connected to our product proposition nor are they values that we believe necessarily are in common with our consumers right our values are essentially the values of our our co-founders and and in in in the book double dip which Ben and Jerry
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wrote years ago about sort of founding a company they tell a story about how sort of three years into running the business they they almost sold the company they they started this little ice cream shop in a dilapidated ice cream uh
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dilapidated gas station they did it because they like to hang out together and they like to eat and they had a great time initially and had some really good success in the first few years but sort of year three they they were
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spending a lot of time doing things they didn't love doing they were they were you know Distributing ice cream around the state they were hiring firing ordering ingredients they kind of weren't doing the fun stuff and so Ben
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told this sort of mentor that he had Maurice a restaurant who were in southern Vermont that he and Jerry were thinking about selling the business the more he said he can't sell this business this is your baby you guys are you know
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you're killing it and and it's a great product and Maurice had a Ben if you don't like the way businesses are run and you don't like what you're what you're doing change the way you run your business and that was the moment that
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Ben sort of Eureka landed on wow what the purpose of Ben and Jerry's was and it was to see whether one could build a successful company that could be an agent of progressive social change so what I would say is the purpose that
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that Ben defined all these years ago is the purpose of Ben and Jerry's is to be advocates for Progressive social change in the world and that the values that the company has are the values that that we pursue in order to make change in the
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world it our values Define the kinds of issues we work on uh and the groups we work with Etc and so I think the purpose is about making change not in one place but but just being an agent of change
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and the values are perhaps the guard rails that that help us achieve that thank you because I think there's a lot of confusion um in the marketplace and so that was very well stated and just one point if I
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can't Carol I think what's important I think what people can agree or disagree with a position that we hold you know we believe strongly in uh you know a woman's right to choose and to access reproductive Health right we we believe
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that the current system of policing and Public Safety disproportionately impact and harm communities of color and we believe that you know we ought to spend less on Cops and and more on other programs and services right and it's
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okay if people don't agree with this on those issues but we believe in those things because they're rooted in these values that are so important to the company and so while people may agree or disagree on those issues it's hard for them to
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challenge the reason why we do it and that's because we have these firmly held beliefs there are beliefs they're not someone else's beliefs they're not our consumers beliefs and I think that is a critical part again of the authenticity
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that we have on these things it's hard to claim that we're just doing this stuff to sell more ice cream because we we have a set of values that that the work is rooted in and we have a
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long history of kind of centering those values at the heart of the the the company so if you're a company that doesn't have a Ben and Jerry the big Founders story um and by the way I have to tell our
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listeners that if you listen to the Ben Jerry's and lots of great podcasts the fact that we would have been talking about Bagels if they had had enough money to buy something Bagel baking equipment it's cheaper to make ice cream and they
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they spent like five dollars on a correspondent course with the SBA so it's it's just a very funny jovial great story that that just became um an amazing movement of authenticity if you don't have a Ben and Jerry
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as a founder or they've left so long ago like an HP um you know in the garage and stuff how do you find the values then because you said Don't listen to the employees but is it then at that point you have to
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listen to the employees no I I think in in I won't I won't name the company that that I I did a little bit of work with but a very large global company that was sort of searching for its purpose I was
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part of a small team that did some work with them and there is a story to every company and every brand right it's there these companies and brands are started by people who believe something I mean you know even going back to unilever's
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founding in Port Sunlight in the UK where where the the right the founder created this community and he invested in the lives and livelihoods of the employees because he felt so strongly about the health and safety of the
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people working at the car so I think there is a story to every company that's rooted in something some belief or some core value and I think the job to be done is to unearth that and and to bring that to
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light and and that can help Define you it's important that you know that purpose or the values of a company are rooted in something real not contrived or made up or appropriated from your consumer base because you think that's gonna you know
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be a selling strategy I think that's the most important thing root it in something real and I think it's there I mean I love that that Mars I mean the Mars family kind of had principles but they finally decided they were going to
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sit there and determine their purpose and they came up with something that was so profound which is you know the world we want tomorrow is how we do business today boy that that states it and you know when covet hit you know were they gonna
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let people go or not so um I love your point about it's there you have to unearth it and it and sometimes it's it's just a lot of work but but it's worthwhile it's great work I am oh it's great it's wonderful work
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and then you see you know unleashing the purpose of the company and it's extraordinary can you talk a little bit about some of your new campaigns um you know if change is brewing um you you made a huge declaration you
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know after George Floyd and I and you say the lynching of George Floyd which I think is a really interesting language you're very precise in your language at Ben Jerry's but we must dismantle white supremacy so you've got some really in
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your face campaigns and so can you illuminate for the larger companies that might go quite to that level but you know again what you could share that you learned from there that they could learn in their own activism excuse me active
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do some campaigns if you take that statement that we released in in the wake of the murder of George Floyd it was the most widely read and shared piece of corporate Communications in the company's history right and it was held
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up as sort of not just a statement that resonated from a company but just something that resonated with people broadly and and you know I think the key to it was that to your point we used very clear
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language we we you know sort of spoke a bit of Truth to power we we both you know talked about what had happened but also the kinds of policies that were needed to kind of address this and and prevent this kind
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of thing from happening in the future when when you contrast what we did with a number of other companies and organizations you know I I don't know don't want to be too harsh but you know I mean the NFL was roundly criticized
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for putting a statement out that didn't even mention the word racism in the context of what had happened to George Floyd and I think where where companies get it wrong and where companies find themselves in a bit of trouble is when they try and
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negotiate a sort of messy non-controversial mushy middle right mushy middle I love I wanted to bring up mushy metal yeah we want to say something but we don't want to say anything that sort of upsets people so we're going to
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try and thread a needle here and that's that's typically where it goes wrong I mean it is true that we have a number of people who disagree with our point of view and we hear from them they call us
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they email us they comment on our social media channels and I think if if there weren't people that disagreed with something we said I think we probably wouldn't be saying something that was very important and so you know I think part of part of doing
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this is is Having the courage to to say things that you believe to be true about the world and to do it in a way in a way that's unafraid of those who will disagree with you and I think we are
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fortunate to have a leadership team at Ben Jerry used to have a culture that is is is willing to deal with the the pushback that comes from having strong beliefs about the world whether it's this statement in response
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to uh the murder of George Floyd or as you talked about our current work around Public Safety and policing we launched a flavor called changes Brewing uh and and we really have used the flavors a platform to talk about a landmark piece
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of legislation called The People's response act that would essentially create a public health lens on the issue of Public Safety really understanding that Public Safety really is a function of Public Health and that we need to make investments in public health in
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order to create safer communities and so um you know just but but you know there are many who have come at us and said well you're just anti-police and I think you know that is obviously not the case
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this is about public safety not about police but I think you know understanding that that is the price of of being advocates for change in the world is that they're going to be folks that are going to disagree with you and
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they're going to let you know yeah you call them purpose pints which I think is great how do you decide on which issues you will create a flavor it's as much art as Sciences you know I mean I think you know we we typically we
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have a handful of limited batch flavors every year typically four and we typically decide to use one to to sort of highlight and promote the campaign work that we're working on at that time and so we've been we've been working uh
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on issues of Public Safety um we we partnered up with congresswoman Corey bush from the city of St Louis who introduced The People's response act she helped launch the flavor with us and you know and it again we talked earlier about
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having this unique set of tools in our sort of activism toolbox and these limited Ash flavors are one of them I mean what's what's really fun about launching an ice cream flavor is you know remarkably people love ice cream
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and it gets a ton of coverage whenever we announce it in a flavor and and we play a little bit of of kind of bait and switch when we launch these these campaign or purpose pints right which is
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we get the issue that the that the flavor is dedicated to in this case Public Safety in the people's response act it becomes a part of the story of the flavor launch and that's covered in places that don't traditionally talk
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about those kinds of issues right delish and eater and all of these places food blogs and and influencers that will lift up this story in in expose new audiences to these ideas and so again it it it adds a new audience and and uh new
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channels for this issue that if a congressperson was just sending out a press release introducing a piece of legislation when we reach right absolutely so this has been a great conversation and unfortunately we're getting down to the bottom of it but I
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would love you Chris to you know Ben and Jerry's is so unique and you know like Patagonia I mean really living and breathing you know what you believe um and having fans Not consumers so for the younger I'm going to say a younger
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professional in a company um who really wants to do the kind of things you're doing but they may not quite have the foundational beliefs to truly push the envelope what do you suggest to them what are the two or
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three or four things that you could suggest because activism is being desired and pushed destruction by gen Z but how do they do it correctly when they're not Ben and Jerry's people often look at Ben Jerry's and say well they
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can do it because they're Ben and Jerry's but I we can't do that right and and the only reason we can do it at Ben and Jerry's is because we do it right I mean if there's no magic to you know South
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Burlington Vermont and you know that that gives us the ability to do this so I think I think any company can do I mean to your point Patagonia I mean they they sell coats there's nothing magic about coats that makes me right and so
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I think you noted something important the world is changing citizens are expecting something different of Corporations than was the case in the past so I think the landscape around corporate citizenship and and purpose if you will is Shifting companies have made
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commitments inside their companies to do things like reduce their environmental impact to increase their social impact uh uh uh making commitments on things like gender equity and racial Equity companies are increasingly being asked to weigh in on issues outside the
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company that are connected to those commitments that they've made internally so if your Delta Airlines or if you're Coca-Cola in Atlanta Georgia and you have committed to things like racial Equity at the executive level and across the company what is your point of view
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on the rollback of voting rights in Georgia right those companies were pulled into that into that fight sort of on willingly at first but they ultimately had to Define their position on it we're going to see more of that
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and I think we'll see more of that as both citizens from outside companies demand it but also as employees inside demand more of it and so I think going back to your question I think there is a role and an opportunity for employees
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inside companies to be advocates for their firms and companies to be a part of helping Society solve some of these problems that we're wrestling with this is an incredibly important time I think in our nation's history when the very
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fundamental form of government of ours is being challenged and for better for worse businesses and corporations are incredibly powerful entities within Society they have an interest in stability as we all do and in the institutions that that govern our
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society and so I think corporations and Brands and companies need to be more outspoken about these things and I think one of the ways that we will get there is is by employees being Advocates internally for corporations stepping up
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and taking some form of responsibility for ensuring you know that they are a part of helping Society solve problems not tear Society apart and then using their personal social media they have tremendous megaphones in reach huge platform right and and you know at a
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time when you know people's opinion of policy makers and elected officials is in the toilet people who have a strong Affinity in relationship with the companies and brands that they care about and so that's an opportunity that's an opportunity for those
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companies and Brands to do more and just talk to people about a product or service transaction right and and you know it goes back to the Insight Ben had so many years ago right which was the the strongest bonds that you can create
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with your consumers your fans is around a shared set of values it's not just around pulling a pint of ice cream out of a freezer case right it's about building relationships with people around a shared set of values and that's
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what this kind of work does when you do it right it both creates impact in the world and it creates a bond between your company and and your consumers and fans I think on that Chris that's just such
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great wisdom and um we could go for hours so maybe I'll invite you back in about a year because I'd love to have you back and just talk about some additional campaigns I want all of our listeners to
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be more courageous as Chris said and you know you don't have to have every single dare I say consumers if you evolve to fans they will be more loyal they will probably eat or use more of your wonderful
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products and they're going to tell your stories you know in this world of communications everybody goes like you know ads don't do it anymore it's about the real story so I'm going to give you the last word because I
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always like to give the last word in closing to Our Guest I think you nailed it Carol be courageous have have the courage to take this work on build it and and they will come it's been great to chat with you Carol oh no it's just
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wonderful and um I just want to thank Chris Miller for joining us today with a storied brand um I've learned so much even more than and I will still now I've added all this incredible um patina around my vision of talking
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with Ben and Jerry's in the early days and keep up the great work and you are an incredible role model for so many in companies um I think we're going to see a lot more people in roles of activism and I I also
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love the point that you said reach out and work with people on the ground Civil Society ngos they are closest enough to the issue and then you know be brave so thank you Chris Miller and we're going to put some wonderful Connections
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in the show notes and of course since my name is Carol Cohn it's been a special little segment for me so thank you very much and we're going to keep an eye on all the great work that Ben and Jerry's
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is doing so thank you thank you so to our listeners um please please please go to the places that you listen to your podcast and I trust you're going to love them as we're getting great feedback and give us lots
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of five stars because we want to rise up in the pantheon of business podcast because purpose is no longer just for a small sliver in an organization today it's for every employee every person in leadership every up and coming student
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and practitioner and NGO and Community engagement member um we have to work together just dare I say and here's my political view save our democracy and whether it's you know one brief um you know volunteerism moment or really speaking out but please
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please please take part engage because only in that way will we have a better world so welcome and thank you from all of our fans from purpose 360 and thank you Chris Miller again [Music]
Topics:Ben & Jerry'sChris Milleractivismsocial changecorporate social responsibilitypurpose-driven businessice creamsustainabilityadvocacybrand activism
