Ben & Jerry's
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Ben & Jerry's is a brand of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, and owned by Unilever.
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[edit] History
Friends since high school, in 1978 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield took a $5 correspondence course in ice cream-making from the Pennsylvania State University. They founded the company the same year in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, using distinctive production methods they learned from Steve Herrell. Starting with a $12,000 investment ($4,000 of which was borrowed), the company built a devoted following for their products and business practices.
The company experienced difficulties with their distribution early on. Ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs, at the time a subsidiary of Pillsbury, tried to force independent distributors to choose one of the brands, and Ben & Jerry's filed a lawsuit against the Häagen-Dazs subsidiary saying that it had acted illegally in its operation and was trying to put Ben & Jerry's out of business. To coincide with the lawsuit, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield also began the "What is the Doughboy afraid of?" campaign to raise public awareness. This campaign included stickers placed on all Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream products with a hotline number where people could complain, or query. Notably, the phone number Ben & Jerry's placed on its products was a Häagen-Dazs phone number, so customers could complain directly to Ben & Jerry's competitor. They also encouraged a boycott of all Pillsbury subsidiaries, which included Burger King.
Pillsbury went to Ben & Jerry's with an out-of-court settlement and signed an agreement that stated it would not impose any such rules on the suppliers. The Ben & Jerry's brand grew tremendously, partly because of the success of the David and Goliath case and the publicity the brand received because of it. Ben & Jerry's tendency to specialize in unusually complex flavors (the company originated the now-often imitated "chocolate chip cookie dough" flavor[citation needed], for example) further aided in sales.
The capital raised from their IPO helped fuel rapid expansion, but also reduced the founders' control.
In 1988, Cohen and Greenfield were named "U.S. Small Business Persons of the Year" by President Ronald Reagan.
After a failed attempt by Cohen to return the company to private ownership, Ben & Jerry's was purchased in August 2000 by the Unilever conglomerate for slightly over $326.43 million. Greenfield made about $19 million through the deal, and Cohen about $46 million. Other Unilever brands of ice cream include Good Humor, Klondike, Breyers, Magnum, Wall's, and Solero. For European markets the ice cream is made at a Unilever factory located in Hellendoorn, Netherlands.
The company is known for the use of natural ingredients; for example, the farmers that provide their cream pledge that it comes from cows that are free from Bovine Growth Hormone. However, in 2002, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) accused Ben & Jerry's of abusing the "All Natural" label for using artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, and other factory-made substances in their products. Ben & Jerry's official response was that they used a different definition of "all natural" than the CSPI.
In August 2006, Ben & Jerry's came under criticism from the Humane Society of the United States for using eggs in its ice cream that come from hens confined in battery cages. [1]
The packaging for their pint containers is made from recycled, bleach-free paper. The company is supporting research into thermoacoustic refrigeration to minimize the potential negative environmental impact from using ozone-depleting refrigerants.
Some of their ice cream flavors are named after musicians, such as their most popular flavor Cherry Garcia[2], named after Jerry Garcia, and Phish Food, named after the Vermont-based band Phish, "Wavy Gravy" named after hippie and clown Wavy Gravy (as told by Wavy, was discontinued because of its high cost), as well as Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies, and now defunct One Sweet Whirled, named after the Dave Matthews Band's regularly played song "One Sweet World" [3].
Flavors from the company come and go, with seasonal "Limited Batch" flavors appearing each year. Other types, such as Rum Raisin, were retired, entering what is referred to as the "flavor graveyard"[4].
Despite their strong reputation in the LGBT community, the Unilever subsidiary only scored a 71% on the 2004 Corporate Equality Index by the Human Rights Campaign.[citation needed]
In 2005, Ben & Jerry's opened a store in Austin, Texas, operated by LifeWorks, a community organization that helps at-risk youth and families. The store provides job opportunities for LifeWorks clients. All profits from the store go directly to LifeWorks and Ben & Jerry's does not collect a franchise fee.
Also in 2005, the company hosted "Sundae on the Common" on Clapham Common, where for a £5 ticket, visitors could have unlimited ice cream, listen to live performances by The Thrills and other bands, and go on fun rides. The 2006 event took place on Sunday 30th July; tickets went on sale on the 19th May 2006 and sold out in 8 hours. Ticket proceeds went to regenerating Clapham Common.
Ben & Jerry's has collaborated with the World Wildlife Fund and explorer Marc Cornelissen to open the Climate Change College. Its aims are to educate normal young people on the science, the politics and the campaign strategies behind climate change so that they can then produce a successful campaign of their own. Students become ambassadors for preventing global warming and do their own research in the Arctic. For further details [5].
Each year on one day either in late April or early May, Ben & Jerry's observes Free Cone Day, on the anniversary of its opening, as a "thank you" to its customers. On this day, over one million cones are given away. The 28th annual Free Cone Day was held on April 25, 2006.
[edit] Flavors
[edit] Black Panther controversy
In 1994, Ben & Jerry's faced controversy for using former Black Panther Party chairperson Bobby Seale in their ads and on the sides of ice cream containers.
[edit] Black & Tan naming controversy
In March 2006, Ben & Jerry's released Black & Tan, an ice cream flavor based on the Black and Tan "cream stout" drink, made from chocolate ice cream and non-alcoholic stout extract. With the packaging peeled off, the ice cream resembles a "pint" of beer.
The name is controversial as the Black and Tans were (not exclusively) former British soldiers deployed as a secondary police force wearing uniforms of khaki and black in Ireland during the War of Independence after 1918 to assist the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in their work. Once there, they participated in a number of atrocities (including the burning of the city of Cork). However, the name for the drink was first used in 1889, and predated these political events.
On April 21, 2006, the company apologized for using the "Black & Tan" flavor name on its ice cream. A Ben & Jerry's spokesman was quoted as saying, "Any reference on our part to the British Army unit was absolutely unintentional and no ill-will was ever intended."
[edit] Trivia
- In the Bollywood movie Salaam Namaste, the lead character craves Ben & Jerry's Belgian Dark Chocolate ice cream during her pregnancy.
- The Ben & Jerry's factory appeared in the film Me, Myself and Irene.
- In the film Miss Congeniality, the lead character ordered a full pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough while having lunch at a bar.
- A Ben & Jerry's store appeared in the movie World Trade Center. This is partly due to the fact that there really was a store in The Mall at the World Trade Center.
- Ben & Jerry's was the first name brand ice cream to be taken into space aboard the Space Shuttle.
In an episode of Charmed, a huge tub of Ben and Jerrys was opened on screen by Piper, Paige (who did not eat any) and Leo.
