Innocent? Proven Guilty!

"I felt that what we were giving him [Ben Cohen], in the end, didn't matter much to Unilever."

"We were getting the brand. We were getting the business. They would have their own board of directors, but we would control what I regard as the key factor in success or failure, which is the selection of the chief executive."

Richard Goldstein Unilever's former U.S. chief

Ben & Jerry's ice creams on sale at a shop in Jerusalem on July 19, 2021.

(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)

These are the lines and the felt sentiments that then-Unilever chief executive Richard Goldstein wrote in his history of the Vermont-based company titled Ice Cream Social. Straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. So Unilever on the one hand honoured its contract with Ben & Jerry's owners with its 2010 takeover of the brand by agreeing to its terms of sale that its social policy issues would remain in control of a Ben & Jerry's board. 

Sometimes the 'principled' socially progressive stances the ice cream maker made reflected well on the company that owned the product and sometimes they failed to. Unilever could take credit for those issues like Ben & Jerry's support of Black Lives Matter, and its becoming a boycott member of Facebook advertisers when it suited their purpose, and at other times, could stand back and metaphorically wash their hands of any responsibility for choices that failed to resonate.

None had ever experienced the backlash that the current imbroglio brought to bear as a result of Jews feeling utterly betrayed by a brand they had celebrated as one of their own success stories. Ben & Jerry's ice cream was Jewish ice cream. A tradition, a culture of applauding Jewish success stories in entrepreneurial business acumen.

A celebrated Jewish ice cream maker that suddenly turned on its most enthusiastic client base when its social messaging-with-a-conscience contingent embraced the social justice flavour of the times known as the "Palestinian cause", to join the Jew-hating rabble that loves to describe Israel as an 'Apartheid' state, a killer of Palestinian babies, an occupying force of Palestinian-designated land reflecting not Judaic but 'Arab historical heritage'.

The government of Israel and diaspora Jews, particularly in consumer-conscious and powerful U.S. markets reacted rather negatively to the announcement that Ben & Jerry's principles forbade them from selling their product in the 'occupied Palestinian territories' as "inconsistent with our values". Suddenly Jews found Ben & Jerry's ice cream inconsistent with their gustatory values. 

 

No manufacturer rejoices at the sudden erosion of their consumer base.

"Liz Gordon, executive director of corporate governance for the $254.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, said in a July 23 letter to Unilever CEO Alan Jope that the fund's trustee, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli "is troubled and concerned" about reports that Ben & Jerry's is involved in Israel boycott activities, and that if they are true, the pension fund will include Unilever on a list of companies with investment restrictions."

Pensions & Investments

Unilever was swift to assure Israel that it had no intention of removing itself from its Israeli market. Leading the Ben & Jerry's chair of its board Anuradha Mittal, an unreconstructed anti-Semite, to charge Unilever with "trying to destroy the soul of the company". The merger agreement between Unilever and Ben & Jerry's suited both, until the present time. The independent board was entrusted with "preserving and enhancing the objectives of the historical social mission of the company".

But suddenly Unilever chief executive Alan Jope didn't feel quite so happy with the event threatening a central client base with the explanation that the withdrawal was a decision "by Ben & Jerry's and its independent board, in line with the acquisition agreement that we signed 20 years ago". But not quite so, since Ben & Jerry's proposals for CEO nominations had been ignored and Unilever  has appointed CEOs who have vetoed social activism proposals by the staff at Ben & Jerry's in the past.

They were somewhat different in that sense than the current chief executive Matthew McCarthy of Ben & Jerry's who said in May: "One of the questions I get most often is, aren't you afraid of alienating consumers by the stands that you take at Ben & Jerry's? It's the exact opposite." 

 

Hello, Unilever: over to you, now!

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images