B&J redirects here. For the beverage company see Bartles and Jaymes.

Ben & Jerry's is a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United States, with the main factory in Waterbury.

History

In 1977 lifelong ex-hippie friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Pennsylvania State University. On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 investment the pair opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont. In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now a nationwide annual celebration.

The founders were able to combine ice cream making with social activism by creating a three-part Mission Statement that considered profits as only one measure of success. Their mission statement is comprised of three parts, a Social Mission, a Product Mission, and an Economic Mission. Their Social Mission describes the company’s need to operate in a way that recognizes their influence on society, and the importance of improving the quality of life all over the world. Their Product Mission states that they will always strive to make the finest quality products, working to use natural, wholesome ingredients. It also states that they will advertise business mannerisms that respect the Earth. Their Economic mission describes their promise to operate their company on a “sustainable financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for [their] stakeholders and expanding opportunities for development and career growth for [their] employees.” "Underlying the mission of Ben & Jerry’s is the determination to seek new and creative ways of addressing all three parts, while holding a deep respect for individuals inside and outside the company and for the communities of which they are a part."

In 1980, Ben and Jerry rented space in an old spool and bobbin mill on South Champlain Street in Burlington and began packing their ice cream in pints. In 1981, the first Ben & Jerry’s franchise opened on Route 7 in Shelburne, Vermont. In 1983, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was used to build “the world’s largest ice cream sundae” in St. Albans, Vermont; the sundae weighed 27,102 pounds. In 1984, Häagen-Dazs tried to limit distribution of Ben & Jerry’s in Boston, prompting Ben & Jerry’s to file suit against the parent company, Pillsbury, in its now famous “What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?” campaign. In 1987, Häagen-Dazs again tried to enforce exclusive distribution, and Ben & Jerry’s filed its second lawsuit against the Pillsbury Company. In 1985, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation was established at the end of the year with a gift from Ben & Jerry's to fund community-oriented projects; it was then provided with 7.5% of the company’s annual pre-tax profits. In 1986, Ben & Jerry’s launched its “Cowmobile,” a modified mobile home used to distribute free scoops of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in a unique, cross-country “marketing drive” - driven and served by Ben and Jerry themselves. The “Cowmobile” burned to the ground outside of Cleveland four months later, but there were no injuries. Ben said it looked like “the world’s largest baked Alaska.”In 1988, the pair won the title of U.S Small Business Persons Of The Year, awarded to them by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Also this year, the first brownies were ordered from Greyston Bakery, which led to the development of the popular Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavor. In 1992, Ben & Jerry’s joined in a co-operative campaign with the national non-profit Children's Defense Fund; the campaign goal was to bring children’s basic needs to the top of the national agenda. Over 70,000 postcards were sent to Congress concerning kids and other national issues. In April 2000, Ben & Jerry's announced its acquisition by multinational food giant Unilever. Unilever said it hopes to carry on the tradition of engaging "in these critical, global economic and social missions." Although the founders are still engaged with the company, they do not hold any board or management position and are not involved in day-to-day management of the company.

In 2001, Ben & Jerry’s U.S. completed transition to "Eco-Pint" packaging, which packaged all pint flavors in unbleached paperboard Eco-Pint containers. The use of brown-kraft unbleached paperboard was a critical first step toward a totally biodegradable pint made without added chlorine. However, due to what they described as increasing supply, quality, and cost challenges, Ben & Jerry's discontinued their use of the Eco-Pint in 2006, transitioning to a pint container made out of a bleached paperboard that they said was more readily available with superior forming characteristics.

On Earth Day in 2005, when a vote in the U.S. Senate proposed the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, Ben & Jerry's launched a protest by creating the largest ever Baked Alaska, which weighed 1,140 pounds, and placed it in front of the US Capitol Building.

In March 2009, " CyClone Dairy" launched an advertising campaign and a website to promote its milk products, which purportedly came exclusively from cloned cows. On April 1, 2009 (April Fool's Day), Ben & Jerry's announced that it was behind this fake company. Ben & Jerry's had created the tongue-in-cheek hoax to raise awareness of the increasing presence of products from cloned animals within American food, and to campaign for a tracking system of cloned-animal products. The hoax was revealed on April Fool's Day with the message: "We believe you should have the right to choose which foods you eat – and not to eat cloned foods if you don’t want to. And that's why Ben & Jerry’s believes we need a national clone tracking system, so people and companies can know where their food is coming from."

For the month of September in 2009, Ben & Jerry's temporarily changed the name of one of its best-selling ice creams, "Chubby Hubby," to "Hubby Hubby," in celebration of the legalization of gay marriage in its home state of Vermont. The new "Hubby Hubby" tub features a picture of two men getting married, as well a picture of a rainbow.

Collaboration

Ben & Jerry's has collaborated with a large number of organizations, including many NGOs. Recently, the company has worked with the World Wildlife Fund and explorer Marc Cornelissen to open the Climate Change College. Its aims are to educate normal young people on what they believe are 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.

Caring Dairy Initiative

Since 2003, Ben & Jerry's have been working on a sustainable Caring Dairy initiative, which helps level out needs of the farmers and their cows, as well as the planet's needs. The company has, so far, reduced energy use on their 11 farms by 2%, and converted all their farms to green energy. Also, in 2002, Ben & Jerry's in the USA committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 10% by 2007, and by investing in a variety of efficiency measures, this target was achieved with ease - the USA now produce 32% less carbon dioxide emissions (per pint of ice cream) today (in 2008) than in 2002. This initiative was brought to the exclusive provider of milk for Ben & Jerry's European ice cream production, Beemster Cheese, in 2007.

In addition to helping farmers and their cows, in 2001 Ben & Jerry's began sourcing vanilla, cocoa, and coffee, for their smooth ice creams, from cooperatively run farmer associations - these community structures help promote their members' quality of life, improve worker's benefits, and sustain a commitment to their land and communities. In 2006, the world's first ever vanilla ice cream made with Fairtrade ingredients was launched by Ben & Jerry's. 2007 saw the release of Vanilla Toffee Crunch, using 100% Fairtrade certified cocoa, sugar, and vanilla, and in 2008, Chunky Monkey was guaranteed to be traded in accordance with international Fairtrade standards as well.

Free Cone Day

Free Cone Day is an annual event held in late April or early May, in which Ben & Jerry's scoop shops give out free ice cream cones. The 30th annual Free Cone Day took place on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, and the most recent event took place on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 which celebrated the company's 31st anniversary.

Over one million free cones are given away each year, prompting the company's ad slogan "Be One In A Million." Charitable organizations are often present at the stores each year and enjoy a significant amount of fundraising success. Oftentimes, local celebrities show up at various stores, promoting the day and the charities there. Sometimes the event is scheduled to coincide with Earth Day and sometimes volunteers are on hand with clipboards and voter registration forms to help those who would like to register to vote.

The first Free Cone Day was held on May 5, 1979. It was done by Ben and Jerry as a customer and staff appreciation event for the one year anniversary of their ice cream store's opening.

Flavors

Cultural significance and reach

Ben & Jerry's was the first brand-name ice cream to be taken into space aboard the Space Shuttle. Most of the cruise ships of the Royal Caribbean International have a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop on board.

Ben and Jerry appeared on the Colbert Report on March 5, 2007 to plug their new ice cream flavor "Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream" and their "grassroots education and advocacy project" TrueMajority.

The pictures of the cows on Ben & Jerry's ice cream cartons were painted by Woody Jackson.

They renamed a flavor, Yes Pecan, in reference to Barack Obama's winning the presidency.They also decided in January of 2009 to donate all proceeds made on the sale of that flavor to the Common Cause Education Fund.

Ben and Jerry are the names of Ben Horne and Jerry Horne, two evil brothers in David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks. In several episodes, they make jokes about ice cream.

In 2009, in partnership with Freedom to Marry, the company renamed the flavor "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby" in support of marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Controversies

Rumors have suggested that Ben & Jerry's supported the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner. Despite several appeals, Abu-Jamal's conviction has been upheld. As a result of this alleged support, the National Fraternal Order of Police has publicly called for a boycott of all Ben & Jerry's products. The Ben & Jerry's website denies that the company has had any connection with the case; however, it adds that Cohen did sign a petition as a private citizen to have "the system of American justice be followed fully in the case."

The company raised controversy in 2006 after releasing a flavor of ice cream called "Black and Tan." It had named the flavor after the alcoholic drink made by mixing stout with pale ale. However, outrage stemmed from the fact that Black and Tans was also a name given to the irregular force of British ex-servicemen recruited during the Irish war of independence and renowned for their brutality.

On September 25, 2008, Tracy Reiman from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield suggesting that to prevent cruelty to dairy cows that Ben & Jerry's should use human breast milk in their ice cream products. Ben & Jerry's spokeswoman Liz Brenna replied that while the company applauds PETA's novel approach to bring attention to this issue, the company believes a human mother's milk is best used for her child.

Global locations

Ben and Jerry's has seven factories, two of which are in Vermont, and one of which is specific to Israel. Each uses locally sourced milk, resulting in slightly different flavors in the retail regions they serve, depending on the plants the cattle eat.

Wages

Ben & Jerry's used to have a policy that no employee's rate of pay shall exceed seven times that of entry-level employees. In 1995, entry-level employees were paid $8 hourly, and the highest paid employee was President and Chief Operating Officer Chuck Lacy, who earned $150,000 annually. When Ben Cohen resigned as Chief Executive Officer and Ben & Jerry's announced the search for a new CEO in 1995, the company ended the seven-to-one-ratio policy.

See also

• Vermonster

References

1. http://www.benjerry.com/activism/mission-statement Retrieved 9/16/09
2. http://www.benjerry.com/activism/mission-statement Retrieved 9/23/09
3. http://www.benjerry.com/our_company/about_us/social_mission/social_audits/2005_sear/sear05_9.1.2.cfm
4. http://www.benjerry.com/features/baked_alaska/index.cfm
5. http://www.cyclonedairy.com/ CyClone Dairy website
6. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/FINAL_FORMATTEDprime%20time.pdf (PDF)
7. http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/15-11/ff_clonedmeat?currentPage=all
8. http://ga3.org/campaign/CloneTracking
9. http://www.benjerry.com/activism/inside-the-pint/more-about-milk/cow-cloning/
10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6125277/Ben-and-Jerrys-renames-ice-cream-Hubby-Hubby-in-celebration-of-gay-marriage.html Ben and Jerry's renames ice cream "Hubby Hubby" in celebration of gay marriage
11. http://www.vegasnews.com/6178/ben-jerry's-31st-annual-free-cone-day-serves-more-than-7300-scoops-raises-money-for-local-charities.html Retrieved 9/16/09
12. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/experiencetype/experience/home.do?br=R&exCode=115 Retrieved 2008-02-05
13. http://www.woodyjackson.com/bennjerry.html Woody Jackson's story of involvement with Ben & Jerry at website of Holy Cow, Inc. Retrieved 2007-06-13
14. http://store.benjerry.com/benjerwoodco.html Ben & Jerry's merchandise says "©Woody Jackson cow design." Retrieved 2007-06-13
15. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/09/yes-pecan-ben-jerrys-anno_n_156674.hrml Retrieved 9/16/09
16. http://www.benjerry.com/hubbyhubby/
17. http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-benjerrypeta,0,5654330.story PETA wants Ben & Jerry's to use human breast milk. Retrieved 2008-09-25
18. http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/09/breast_is_best.php Response to Ben & Jerry's Press Release from PETA's blog. Retrieved 2008-09-27
19. Ben and Jerry's factory tour, 13 Sep 2009.

External links

• Official website
• Climate Change College website
• Unilever website
• LifeWorks website
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
• Boston Phoenix Interview with founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield