WEBVTT - Corporate Activism With a Cherry on Top

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. It's time for

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<v Speaker 1>this week's cover story, Will Carol. Many companies, especially these days,

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<v Speaker 1>are championing social, economic, and environmental causes, but few have

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<v Speaker 1>succeeded and continue to succeed quite like Ben and Jerry's. Sure, Jason,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean Ben and Jerry's makes ice cream. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>real business may very well be activism. That was most

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<v Speaker 1>recently on display with the company's June second statement made

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<v Speaker 1>during the Black Lives Matter protests, titled we must dismantle

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<v Speaker 1>White supremacy. Silence is not an option. The statement immediately

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<v Speaker 1>went viral well and Ben and Jerry's approach to activism.

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<v Speaker 1>It's also informing decisions at Unilever. That's, of course, it's

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<v Speaker 1>parent company, and that company's CEO, Alan job has described

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<v Speaker 1>the brand as a guide for how other Unilever properties

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<v Speaker 1>can marry purpose and profit. So how does Ben and

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry's always seem to get things right while others fail.

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<v Speaker 1>The answer, it seems it's rooted in the company's three

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<v Speaker 1>part mission, economic, product, and social. It's also not shy

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<v Speaker 1>about linking its product directly with its ideals. Ben and

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry's activism team counts almost twenty full time members who

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<v Speaker 1>meet each week and work with outside advocates. They'll often

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<v Speaker 1>spent a year building a campaign to a specific event.

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<v Speaker 1>Now all of this helps the company pursue, in the

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<v Speaker 1>words of its former CEO, a deeper bond than sugar

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<v Speaker 1>and fat. I scream, you scream, we all scream for social, economic,

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<v Speaker 1>and environmental justice. Ben and Jerry's Recipe for Corporate Activism

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<v Speaker 1>by Jordan Holman and Thomas Buckley. Annorata Mittal was about

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<v Speaker 1>to step out of her home in Oakland, California, on

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<v Speaker 1>the last Friday of May, but first she had one

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<v Speaker 1>last email to send. She was on her way to

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<v Speaker 1>one of the demonstrations that had broken out around the

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<v Speaker 1>world five days after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

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<v Speaker 1>Like hundreds of other protesters, she'd be praying and dancing

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<v Speaker 1>late into the night in streets blurred by billowing tear

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<v Speaker 1>gas and teeming with riot police. The note Mittal, the

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<v Speaker 1>board chair of Benna Jerry's, was sending, was to the

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<v Speaker 1>chief executive officer, Matthew McCarthy, requesting that a statement be

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<v Speaker 1>prepared by Monday. She wanted the ice cream brand to

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<v Speaker 1>express support for the Black Lives Matter movement and to

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<v Speaker 1>cry the violence against Floyd, who died while being restrained

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<v Speaker 1>by a white law enforcement officer less than fifteen minutes

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<v Speaker 1>after his arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill to

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<v Speaker 1>buy cigarettes. McCarthy replied immediately to assure her his team

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<v Speaker 1>was already on it. Over the weekend, the CEO, who

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<v Speaker 1>sports woodstock cheek, elbow length curls, and a straggly beard,

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<v Speaker 1>consulted two advocacy groups the company works with, Color of

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<v Speaker 1>Change and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

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<v Speaker 1>People for advice on how to phrase an unequivocal takedown

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<v Speaker 1>of racial injustice. He was one of five Bennajerry's employees,

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<v Speaker 1>including executives with curious titles like Global Social Mission Officer,

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<v Speaker 1>making edits to a Google doc's draft written primary early

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<v Speaker 1>by the company's global head of activism Strategy, Chris Miller.

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<v Speaker 1>On Monday, a final version was sent for approval to

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<v Speaker 1>Color of Change and the in double A CP, and

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<v Speaker 1>then to Ben and Jerry's board. The seven for word

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<v Speaker 1>text linked Floyd and other recent victims of fatal persecution,

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<v Speaker 1>such as Brianna Taylor and ahmaud are very with historical

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<v Speaker 1>ones like Martin Luther King Jr. It supported the creation

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<v Speaker 1>of a national task force that would draft by partisan

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<v Speaker 1>legislation aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability.

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<v Speaker 1>It advocated for the U. S. Department of Justice to

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<v Speaker 1>reinvigorate its Civil Rights division and reinstate policies rolled back

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<v Speaker 1>by the Trump administration, such as consent decrees to curb

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<v Speaker 1>police abuses. It called on the President to disavow white

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<v Speaker 1>supremacists and nationalist groups that overtly support him instead of

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<v Speaker 1>using his Twitter feed to promote and normalize their ideas

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<v Speaker 1>and agendas. And it said Congress should create a commission

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<v Speaker 1>to study the effects of slavery and discrimination dating back

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<v Speaker 1>to sixteen nineteen, the year the first Africans arrived in

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<v Speaker 1>Virginia in shackles. When Ben and Jerry's posted the statement

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<v Speaker 1>on June two to its website and social media accounts

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<v Speaker 1>under the title we must dismantle white supremacy, Silence is

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<v Speaker 1>not an option, hundreds of thousands of people rapidly circulated it.

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<v Speaker 1>It was lauded as the most detailed and powerful message

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<v Speaker 1>from any corporation seeking to condemn the latest high profile

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<v Speaker 1>homicide in a chain of abuse black people have suffered

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<v Speaker 1>at the hands of white people across centuries. Other more

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<v Speaker 1>somnambulent businesses found themselves on the defensive. Facebook saw hundreds

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<v Speaker 1>of employees stage of virtual walkout after it refused to

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<v Speaker 1>add labels to false or incendiary Trump posts that apparently

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<v Speaker 1>violated its policies. The furor prompted some of the world's

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<v Speaker 1>largest marketers, including Verizon, Coca Cola, Lego, and Ben and

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry's owner Unilever, to stop advertising their products on the

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<v Speaker 1>platform for at least a month. Google, Twit, and YouTube,

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<v Speaker 1>which have also been criticized for inaction on misinformation and abuse,

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<v Speaker 1>were hit by Boycott's two, and the renewed attention to

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<v Speaker 1>racial injustice led some companies and sports teams to reconsider

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<v Speaker 1>problematic brand identities and logos. PepsiCo and Mars said they

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<v Speaker 1>would retire imagery associated with Aunt Jemima Pancake Syrup and

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<v Speaker 1>Uncle Ben's Rice, which both featured caricatures of black cooks.

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<v Speaker 1>Washington's NFL franchise announced it would change its name a

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<v Speaker 1>racist slur against Native Americans. Mittal, a human rights and

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<v Speaker 1>environmental activist who founded the Oakland Institute, a policy group,

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<v Speaker 1>says Ben and Jerry's firm stance was especially motivated by

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<v Speaker 1>the White House's response, which she viewed as fanning the crisis.

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<v Speaker 1>I think of the killings that have happened as no

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<v Speaker 1>different than lynchings. It has just laid bare again how

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<v Speaker 1>deep the racism is, says Mental, who has been on

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<v Speaker 1>the board for almost thirteen years and was appointed chair

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<v Speaker 1>in I think that's why I as a company, we

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<v Speaker 1>can't wait for others to make it a tipping point.

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<v Speaker 1>It is really for each one of us to ensure

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<v Speaker 1>that George Floyd and Brianna Taylor do not just become

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<v Speaker 1>a hashtag. When this year's protests began, many companies tried

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<v Speaker 1>to write tickets seating themselves on the right side of history,

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<v Speaker 1>expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which formed

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty thirteen after the acquittal of the man who

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<v Speaker 1>shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a black teenager in Florida.

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<v Speaker 1>Some businesses have come under pressure in recent years to

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<v Speaker 1>find callings higher than driving shareholder value as shoppers turned

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<v Speaker 1>to brands with a more conscious approach to capitalism. A

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<v Speaker 1>survey conducted after Floyd's killing by Morning. Consult a data

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<v Speaker 1>analysis firm, found that about two thirds of Americans from

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<v Speaker 1>Generation Z, the sought after cohort of high schoolers and

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<v Speaker 1>college students, said the way corporations and their brands reacted

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<v Speaker 1>to the BLM movement would permanently effect their future purchasing patterns.

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<v Speaker 1>But in the age of going viral, attempting to speak

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<v Speaker 1>to more than four centuries of racial injustice can be perilous.

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<v Speaker 1>Perhaps most famously, PepsiCo tried and failed in seventeen to

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<v Speaker 1>evoke the BLM movement by airing a three minute ad

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<v Speaker 1>that depicted Kendall Jenner, a white fashion model from the

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<v Speaker 1>Kardashian clan, handing an ice cold Pepsi to a policeman

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<v Speaker 1>flanked by other officers in protective gear as an ethnically

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<v Speaker 1>diverse crowd of actors cheered her on. Companies keep trying, though,

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<v Speaker 1>following the Floyd protests, Righteous Gelato introduced a chocolate flavored

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<v Speaker 1>Black Lives Matter Gelato, then quickly pulled it after an

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<v Speaker 1>online backlash. The white designer who shepherded the branding later

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<v Speaker 1>conceded she may not have been best suited for the task.

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<v Speaker 1>Pretty Little thing. An online retailer posted a photo on

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<v Speaker 1>social media showing jet black and peach toned hands clasped

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<v Speaker 1>above the motto Stand Together, only to be criticized for

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<v Speaker 1>depicting the black hand in an unlo life like hugh

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<v Speaker 1>a distillery in Bristol, England, tweeted a crass reference to

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<v Speaker 1>its gen's high flammability, making it a favorite of looters.

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<v Speaker 1>Other efforts were baldly hypocritical. On Blackout Tuesday, one of

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<v Speaker 1>the millions of social media accounts posting a single black

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<v Speaker 1>tile in support of BLM belonged to the NFL's San

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<v Speaker 1>Francisco forty Niners, which split acrimoniously with quarterback Colin Kaepernick

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<v Speaker 1>after he began kneeling during the National Anthem to protest

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<v Speaker 1>police brutality toward black people. Washington's franchise posted a tile

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<v Speaker 1>to Laureal, whose black square was overlaid with the words

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<v Speaker 1>speaking out is worth. It was criticized for insincerity by

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<v Speaker 1>Monroe Bergdorff, a black English model who said the cosmetics

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<v Speaker 1>company had dropped her from a seventeen campaign after she

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<v Speaker 1>spoke out about white supremacy. The company responded by apologizing

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<v Speaker 1>for the incident and adding her to its UK Diversity

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<v Speaker 1>and Inclusion Board. A McDonald's statement that each black victim

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<v Speaker 1>was one of us prompted the American Civil Liberties Union

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<v Speaker 1>to ask the fast food chain why it was denying

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of thousands of black workers access to paid sick

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<v Speaker 1>and family leave during a global pandemic. The company offers

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<v Speaker 1>some paid leave to workers at corporate owned locations, but

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't guarantee it to those employed by franchise ese. Starbucks,

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<v Speaker 1>which posted that it stood in solidarity with black partners, customers,

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<v Speaker 1>and communities and that it wouldn't be a bystander, also

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<v Speaker 1>said it's baristas wouldn't be permitted to wear BLM clothing

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<v Speaker 1>until an outcry and boycott threats led it to reverse course.

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<v Speaker 1>Companies have to actually, truly be ready and willing to

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<v Speaker 1>address their impact, and that doesn't happen overnight, says Rashad Robinson,

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<v Speaker 1>executive director of Color of Change. Robinson, who's addressed audiences

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<v Speaker 1>at a number of leading corporations about structural racism, the

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<v Speaker 1>deep seated influence racial bias has on power structures, and

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<v Speaker 1>the importance of quantifying diversity, was one of the experts

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<v Speaker 1>McCarthy called to help an Jerry's draft its response. A

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<v Speaker 1>lot of companies say black lives matter, but Ben and

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry's has actually put energy, time and flavor behind black

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<v Speaker 1>lives matter. This is not new for them. In Ben

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<v Speaker 1>Cohen and Jerry Greenfield Friends since grade school completed a

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<v Speaker 1>five dollar correspondence course in ice cream making and found

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<v Speaker 1>it Ben and Jerry's out of a renovated gas station

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<v Speaker 1>in Burlington, Vermont. While most shoppers came to know the

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<v Speaker 1>brand for a political wasteline crime such as caramel Chew Chew,

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<v Speaker 1>it simultaneously became a committed corporate activist, campaigning for causes

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<v Speaker 1>such as same sex marriage, criminal justice reform, and nature conservation.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ethos closely tracked the leninesque worldview of its creators,

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<v Speaker 1>who often seemed more comfortable hosting their One World, One

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<v Speaker 1>Heart music festival, a kaleidoscope of tie dyed roots, rock

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<v Speaker 1>and psychedelic Ben and Jerry's motifs, then participating in quarterly

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<v Speaker 1>earnings calls. Some of the company's most important and long

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<v Speaker 1>standing commitments have been on the environmental front, and it

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<v Speaker 1>hasn't hesitated to link its product directly with its ideals.

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<v Speaker 1>In the late eighties, it released Rainforest Crunch, a flavor

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<v Speaker 1>that incorporated nuts responsibly sourced from indigenous Amazonian tribes, helping

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<v Speaker 1>spark a national conversation about deforestation. Over time, it refined

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<v Speaker 1>a model for activism centered on campaigns. Each week, a

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<v Speaker 1>team meets to identify and discuss pressing social justice issues.

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<v Speaker 1>After Ben and Jerry's decides to align itself with the cause,

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<v Speaker 1>the team taps experts at leading advocacy groups and spends

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<v Speaker 1>at least a year working on persuasive language. Then it

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<v Speaker 1>disseminates material to the company's website, social media channels, and

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<v Speaker 1>ice cream tubs, often building up to a specific event.

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<v Speaker 1>One of Ben and Jerry's environmental campaigns, an eighteen month

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<v Speaker 1>initiative called Save our Sworld, culminated at the United Nations

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<v Speaker 1>Climate Change Conference in Paris, where organizers wield in a

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<v Speaker 1>giant paper mache statue of an ice cream cone with

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<v Speaker 1>a melting globe patterned scoop. The company's ongoing climate messaging

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<v Speaker 1>includes a website page listing endangered pints whose supply chains

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<v Speaker 1>are at risk of disruption by climate change Tragically. The

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<v Speaker 1>list includes every flavor containing chocolate, as coco production in

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<v Speaker 1>West Africa suffers from rising temperatures and lower rainfall. Related

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<v Speaker 1>blog posts read like abstracts of essays by Sierra Club

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<v Speaker 1>Scientific Advisors, with the fondness for exclamation points and cutesy vernacular.

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<v Speaker 1>Ben and Jerry's activism didn't slow through a mid nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighties initial public offering or its acquisition for three and

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<v Speaker 1>twenty six million dollars in two thousand by Unilever, the

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<v Speaker 1>sprawling Anglo Dutch conglomerate behind Dove Soap and Hellman's Mayonnaise.

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<v Speaker 1>Unilever is also the world's largest maker of ice cream

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<v Speaker 1>en gelato, selling supermarket and concessionary brands such as Briar's Cornetto, Fudgsicle, Gram, Klondike, Magnum, Popsicle, Solero,

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<v Speaker 1>and Talenti. According to Brad Edmondson's book Ice Cream Social,

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<v Speaker 1>The Struggle for the soul of Ben and Jerry's, the

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<v Speaker 1>takeover agreement took about two years to negotiate, in part

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<v Speaker 1>because Cohen and Greenfield were adamant that the business retained

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<v Speaker 1>its own board of directors and independence over what the

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<v Speaker 1>company calls its three part mission, Economic, Product and Social.

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<v Speaker 1>Mittal says many employees viewed Unilever as an eight thousand

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<v Speaker 1>pound guerrilla moving in. Ultimately, it took charge of the

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<v Speaker 1>economic part of Ben and Jerry's mission and left the

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<v Speaker 1>other two to the subsidiary. At times, Ben and Jerry's

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<v Speaker 1>activism has tested Unilever's promises. All of its current directors

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<v Speaker 1>save for two Unilever executives, are activists or have extensive

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<v Speaker 1>experience in the charity sector. At one point, more members

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<v Speaker 1>of the Creamery's board had been arrested while protesting than not.

0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.199
<v Speaker 1>Ben and Jerry and Ben and Jerry vocally supported the

0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.760
<v Speaker 1>Occupy Wall Street protests in twenty eleven, and when the

0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.360
<v Speaker 1>company took a stance a decade ago against ingredients derived

0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.840
<v Speaker 1>from genetically modified organisms and directed the first of several

0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:18.120
<v Speaker 1>billboards about the cause. Then CEO Jostein Solheim got a

0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.320
<v Speaker 1>call from case Kratoff, who headed Unilever's business in the

0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.400
<v Speaker 1>US and served on the board of the Grocery Manufacturers

0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:29.560
<v Speaker 1>of America, which is pro gmo. Solheim referred him to

0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.400
<v Speaker 1>the commitment to advocacy Unilever had agreed to in its

0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:37.360
<v Speaker 1>ownership contract. Around the same time, Paul Polman became CEO

0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.120
<v Speaker 1>of Unilever and began a ten year effort to turn

0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.800
<v Speaker 1>the parent corporation into a test bed for a more

0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.480
<v Speaker 1>socially adroit way of doing business. As he worked to

0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.720
<v Speaker 1>cut carbon emissions at its factories and right human and

0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.720
<v Speaker 1>environmental wrongs in its supply chain, among other initiatives. He

0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.560
<v Speaker 1>visited the Ben and Jerry's team in Vermont at least

0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.440
<v Speaker 1>once a year to learn from its campaigns. UNI Leaver's

0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.960
<v Speaker 1>current CEO, Alan Joke, pledged when he took over to

0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.760
<v Speaker 1>consider selling off brands that couldn't operate in a manner

0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.240
<v Speaker 1>that benefits society. He's described Ben and Jerry's as a

0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.800
<v Speaker 1>guide for how other Unilever properties can marry purpose with profit.

0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.440
<v Speaker 1>One of its flagship brands, Dove Soap, followed Ben and

0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.000
<v Speaker 1>Jerry's lead on BLM, saying it would advance its own

0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.600
<v Speaker 1>calls for legislative action and extend its work with such

0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.760
<v Speaker 1>organizations as the National Black Child Development Institute to address

0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.880
<v Speaker 1>racial justice for the next generation of Americans. On the

0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.760
<v Speaker 1>other hand, Unilever has been pilloried recently for continuing to

0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:43.480
<v Speaker 1>market melanin suppressing skin whitening creams, which critics say promote

0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.600
<v Speaker 1>racist preferences for lighter skin in some Asian countries. The

0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:49.760
<v Speaker 1>company has said only that it will change the name

0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.760
<v Speaker 1>of its Fair and Lovely line, which generates more than

0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.880
<v Speaker 1>five million dollars in annual revenue, to Glow and Lovely,

0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.560
<v Speaker 1>and that will include women of all skin tones in

0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.880
<v Speaker 1>future marketing materials. Ben and Jerry's has its issues too,

0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.960
<v Speaker 1>starting at the source. It makes its money from a

0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.880
<v Speaker 1>deeply unhealthy product that's a particularly uncomfortable fact at a

0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.680
<v Speaker 1>moment when glucose is increasingly regarded as the new tobacco,

0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.600
<v Speaker 1>and it clashes two with the company's work and supported

0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.960
<v Speaker 1>black Americans, who are more likely to contract type two

0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:26.560
<v Speaker 1>diabetes than whites. The company also baffled many progressive customers

0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.640
<v Speaker 1>and dismayed some members of its own board when, despite

0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.880
<v Speaker 1>its history of campaigning to end gun violence, it appointed

0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:39.880
<v Speaker 1>Perry Odac, who would previously run a firearms manufacturer, as CEO.

0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.240
<v Speaker 1>Odak's fractious tenure ended less than a year after the

0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.200
<v Speaker 1>sale to Unilever, and Mittal is quick to acknowledge that

0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.240
<v Speaker 1>Ben and Jerry's has shortcomings of its own where inclusion

0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:54.000
<v Speaker 1>is concerned. While the board's seven directors do include four

0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.840
<v Speaker 1>women and three people of color, two of whom are black.

0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.520
<v Speaker 1>The majority of its workforce and leadership, she says, remain

0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.399
<v Speaker 1>all very white. In part, this reflects Vermont's demographic makeup.

0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.399
<v Speaker 1>The state is white, so Ben and Jerry's has been

0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.000
<v Speaker 1>seeking other ways of becoming more diverse. Mittal says the

0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.119
<v Speaker 1>company is, for instance, examining how to source a greater

0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.879
<v Speaker 1>share of its ingredients from black owned farms. Ben and

0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.240
<v Speaker 1>Jerry's long record of activism has tended to mitigate and

0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:27.120
<v Speaker 1>he perceived sins, helping it avoid accusations of insincerity when

0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.159
<v Speaker 1>it speaks out, and the company has largely managed not

0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.960
<v Speaker 1>to be regarded as opportunistic of using social consciousness to

0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.160
<v Speaker 1>increase sales. In recent years, keeping revenue up has become

0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.679
<v Speaker 1>ever more crucial as it fends off a rash of

0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.840
<v Speaker 1>insurgents from low calorie alternatives such as Halo Top two,

0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:50.320
<v Speaker 1>sheeshy probiotic choices such as Foxy's Thoughtful ice cream. Solheim

0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.560
<v Speaker 1>says sales were never the point, stressing that Ben and

0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.000
<v Speaker 1>Jerry's campaigns have neither hurt nor helped demand during his

0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.439
<v Speaker 1>eight years running the company. He traces the fundamental appeal

0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.439
<v Speaker 1>of its pints to their indulgent flavors, as well as

0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.960
<v Speaker 1>to carefully timed price reductions and product releases. In his view,

0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.080
<v Speaker 1>the company's expressions of principle serve rather to cement its

0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.080
<v Speaker 1>long term standing with socially minded fans. Loyalty is pretty

0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.520
<v Speaker 1>valuable in this business, he says. If we share values

0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.320
<v Speaker 1>on climate, same sex marriage rights, racism, I think that's

0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:29.320
<v Speaker 1>a deeper bond than sugar and fat. These days, Ben

0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.960
<v Speaker 1>and Jerry's activism team counts almost twenty full time members,

0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.240
<v Speaker 1>including characters such as Dave Rappaport, the Global Social Mission

0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.399
<v Speaker 1>officer who once spent several days in the Nevada Desert

0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.280
<v Speaker 1>being chased by armed security forces in helicopters after he

0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:48.080
<v Speaker 1>tried to stop a nuclear weapons test explosion. It has

0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.240
<v Speaker 1>a budget that's as large as a fifth of the

0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:54.400
<v Speaker 1>marketing department's discretionary spending, which runs into the millions of dollars.

0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.280
<v Speaker 1>The Ben and Jerry's Foundation, which the company funds, also

0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.480
<v Speaker 1>earmarks about two point five million dollars annually to grassroots

0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.760
<v Speaker 1>causes across the US. Running the show is Miller, whose

0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.000
<v Speaker 1>posts on Ben and Jerry's social media accounts have helped

0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.359
<v Speaker 1>bring more than one thirty thousand new signatories to Color

0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.600
<v Speaker 1>of Change petitions in the past year alone. On June tenth,

0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.240
<v Speaker 1>the Activism Team published a blog post announcing its next project,

0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:26.480
<v Speaker 1>defunding US police forces. That project, like the statement on

0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.639
<v Speaker 1>the George Floyd killing, Miller drafted, follows from a recent

0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.320
<v Speaker 1>emphasis on criminal justice reform, a cause Ben and Jerry's

0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.960
<v Speaker 1>has supported since at least the late eighties, when it

0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.800
<v Speaker 1>began sourcing the brownie bites found in some flavors from

0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.359
<v Speaker 1>New York's Graceton Bakery, which provides jobs and training to

0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:47.480
<v Speaker 1>formally incarcerated people and those who were homeless. In twenty fifteen,

0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.800
<v Speaker 1>the foundation brought executives and board members to North Carolina,

0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.480
<v Speaker 1>where Reverend William Barbour's Moral Monday's movement on civil and

0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.200
<v Speaker 1>environmental rights was taking off. Three years later, ahead of

0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.639
<v Speaker 1>the U S midterm elections, the creamery rebranded its New

0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:06.359
<v Speaker 1>York superfudge Chunk to Pecan Resist in response to Trump

0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.119
<v Speaker 1>administration policies that threatened the civil rights of women, people

0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.760
<v Speaker 1>of color, refugees, immigrants, and the lgbt Q community. The

0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:19.080
<v Speaker 1>pun on pe Can was more evident in Vermont than, say, Georgia,

0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.680
<v Speaker 1>where the word is pronounced pecan. Last year, it introduced

0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.640
<v Speaker 1>Justice Remixed, a variety that includes cinnamon bun and spicy

0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.720
<v Speaker 1>fudge brownie chunks, in partnership with the Advancement Project, a

0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:36.000
<v Speaker 1>racial justice advocacy group. Its factories are also outfitted with

0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.520
<v Speaker 1>art painted by former inmates, and it's brought in political

0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.720
<v Speaker 1>figures such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and the late

0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.560
<v Speaker 1>U S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia to speak to

0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.119
<v Speaker 1>its workforce and council management on the race related imbalances

0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.720
<v Speaker 1>that pervade the judicial system. Ben and Jerry's social justice

0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.879
<v Speaker 1>efforts accelerated a year after the trip to North Carolina,

0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:58.960
<v Speaker 1>when its first blog post on BLM drew so much

0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.879
<v Speaker 1>traffic it broke its website. The more comprehensive statement the

0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.600
<v Speaker 1>company issued in June came from a muscle that was

0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.080
<v Speaker 1>continuously being developed from the board and management team over time,

0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.040
<v Speaker 1>says Darren Dodson, a board member and managing director at

0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:18.240
<v Speaker 1>illumin Capital Management, an investment firm focused on reducing implicit bias.

0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.040
<v Speaker 1>It didn't just happen. It came out of years of

0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:25.400
<v Speaker 1>work and commitment of which will never stop conversations about

0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.879
<v Speaker 1>the root causes of racial inequality and systemic abuses by

0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.560
<v Speaker 1>law enforcement still seemed to overwhelm large swaths of the

0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:37.000
<v Speaker 1>business community at times. It's challenging, Miller acknowledges, even for

0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.359
<v Speaker 1>a company that's long tried to be a rising force

0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.800
<v Speaker 1>for change. He mentions a recent conference call related to

0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.000
<v Speaker 1>their new campaign, during which the debate became so heated

0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.080
<v Speaker 1>he had to tell everyone to park it for a minute.

0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:50.840
<v Speaker 1>It felt like a conversation I would have had back

0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:54.000
<v Speaker 1>in my green Piece days, he says. I made some

0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.440
<v Speaker 1>comment that this is likely not a conversation that is

0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.359
<v Speaker 1>happening right now at Hoggindas. And that's the cover story

0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.000
<v Speaker 1>of Bloomberg Business Week magazine. Check that out, plus many

0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.680
<v Speaker 1>other stories. The magazine now on newsstands, also at Bloomberg

0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.080
<v Speaker 1>dot com and on the Bloomberg terminal. I'm Carol Masser

0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:11.920
<v Speaker 1>and I'm Jason Kelly. Check us out every day on

0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.280
<v Speaker 1>the radio, Bloomberg Business Week Daily two to six pm

0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:17.000
<v Speaker 1>Wall Street Time. This is Bloomberg