James,
It’s Ben from Ben & Jerry’s – and I’m reaching out today to ask for your help to #FreeBenandJerrys.
Jerry and I built our company nearly half a century ago to do more than sell ice cream. Love, equity, justice, solidarity – these are the real ingredients that shaped our lives and the mission of BNJ's. When Unilever bought the company in 2000, we insisted on creating an independent board specifically to safeguard Ben & Jerry’s product quality and social justice mission from corporate interference.
That was the deal. And for years, our brand continued speaking out: against white supremacy, for marriage equality, for climate justice, for Palestinian human rights, and for the idea that businesses have responsibilities far deeper than profit margins.
But now Unilever and its spinoff Magnum, have broken that promise, silencing Ben & Jerry's from speaking out on Gaza, free speech and the right to protest, Black History Month, and more. They’re stripping away the voice of the company we built – so we’re fighting back. We’ve assembled a group of social investors who support
the mission and are ready to become the new owners of BNJ’s.
They’re willing to pay fair market value, but Unilever/Magnum
refuses to sell. So we’re launching the campaign to #FreeBenandJerrys – to help Unilever/Magnum understand
that by muzzling BNJ’s they are destroying the brand and the
deep values based relationship that we have with our
customers—and they’re not gonna stand for it. We need to
protect free expression, defend independent political voices,
and push back against corporate capitulation to authoritarian pressure.
We need this movement with us. Will you add your name to demand that Unilever/Magnum transfers ownership to a group that actually supports all that Ben & Jerry’s stands for?
Because of Unilever/Magnum’s work to muzzle Ben & Jerry’s whenever the brand tries to stand up for justice, peace, and progressive values, Jerry and I have determined that it’s not possible for BNJ’s to retain its values under current ownership. That’s what prompted Jerry to make one of the most painful decisions of his life and step down from the company this fall.
But we are not done fighting. Our values cannot be bargained away to appease a hostile administration or corporate executives who think silence is safer than principle.
We’ve seen this pattern before: corporations cozying up to strongmen, silencing dissent, policing political expression, and abandoning commitments the moment they become inconvenient. When companies bow to intimidation, democracy becomes smaller for all of us.
And let’s be honest – none of this is happening in a vacuum. Across the country, we’re living through an all-out assault on civil rights, voting rights, the rights of immigrants, women, LGBTQIA+ communities, and Black and brown Americans. The louder the movement for justice grows, the harder those in power work to shut it down.
That’s exactly why this moment matters. It’s easy to champion values when nothing is at stake. The real test is whether we stand up when the pressure is greatest.
Ben & Jerry’s is being silenced. But we don’t have to be.
Join us. Add your name. Help us defend free expression and protect a legacy of speaking truth to power.
–Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's
