In April 2000, Ben & Jerry’s sold itself to British multinational food giant Unilever for $326 million
In 2010, Jostein Solheim, a Unilever executive from Norway, was appointed CEO.
In 2018, Matthew McCarthy, previously a Unilever executive, was appointed CEO, replacing Solheim.
You’re missing the point here. It hasn’t been in control of the original people who ran the company for a long, long time. It’s literally been being run by Unilever executives.
_The brand said it would end sales in the territories
spoiler-title
after years
::: of campaigning by activists allied with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign._
I think I see what you’re saying but they still owned the company.
However,
When did Ben and Jerry’s become a public company?
In 1978, with $12,000, Ben & Jerry’s opened in a vacant gas station. The first franchise followed in 1981, distribution outside Vermont began in 1983, and the company went public in 1984.
Yeah going public is often the death knell of real progressive action from companies.
I think we are mostly on the same page. I would say “owning the company” isn’t the same as “in control of how the company works” when you’re owned by a giant parent company. They may still “own” it but they haven’t effectively been in direct control of its current and future operations since 2000.
That’s a fair take, but if we’re going back to the 80’s and 90’s, I personally am going to cut them some slack because it was a lot harder to really be up to date about issues like what was going on in Palestine back then. We had more independent media, sure, but it was far more difficult for the average American to get informed about those kind of issues without the modern internet.
The death of Rachel Corrie at the hands of Israelis stealing Palestinian land was in 2003 and hardly was a blip in American media. Just from my own memories from the time far fewer people were aware of it even being an issue. I remember being pissed but most people didn’t know or didn’t seem to care that they murdered a US citizen.
The modern pressure on Ben & Jerry’s is because millions of people are aware of it now thanks to the modern internet and are getting involved in the pressure. Back then? I strongly suspect Ben & Jerry’s probably got a handful of letters about it, and whether the owners actually ever saw such letters or read articles about what was going on in Palestine is up for debate. Not everyone can know anything, and there was truly a dearth of media about it in the US at the time. By the time it was well-known enough for large amounts of people to be actively pressuring them, they were owned by genuinely evil assholes, not just oblivious halfway decent people.
Also fair, but I’m a backwater hick 99.9% of my life and I knew about it. I really don’t remember how, maybe it was brought to my attention *after Unilever.
Rachel Corrie was the first I was ever exposed to it personally, and that’s because she was a local. I began doing my research on the subject after that, and I was in my mid-twenties.
Yes, I was upset before that, but I’ve got a few years on you. I’m thinking I may have heard of Ben and Jerry’s being in occupied Palestine on the site that shall not be named.
Edit; maybe not, they came online in the early aughts, so maybe I’m misremembering. Could have been a BBS or IRC or maybe ICQ or even aol 😂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_%26_Jerry's#Unilever_era
You’re missing the point here. It hasn’t been in control of the original people who ran the company for a long, long time. It’s literally been being run by Unilever executives.
_The brand said it would end sales in the territories
spoiler-title
after years ::: of campaigning by activists allied with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign._
I think I see what you’re saying but they still owned the company.
However,
So maybe that’s the biggest issue.
Yeah going public is often the death knell of real progressive action from companies.
I think we are mostly on the same page. I would say “owning the company” isn’t the same as “in control of how the company works” when you’re owned by a giant parent company. They may still “own” it but they haven’t effectively been in direct control of its current and future operations since 2000.
Yes, and they were in Palestine before then, and after the IPO.
That’s a fair take, but if we’re going back to the 80’s and 90’s, I personally am going to cut them some slack because it was a lot harder to really be up to date about issues like what was going on in Palestine back then. We had more independent media, sure, but it was far more difficult for the average American to get informed about those kind of issues without the modern internet.
The death of Rachel Corrie at the hands of Israelis stealing Palestinian land was in 2003 and hardly was a blip in American media. Just from my own memories from the time far fewer people were aware of it even being an issue. I remember being pissed but most people didn’t know or didn’t seem to care that they murdered a US citizen.
The modern pressure on Ben & Jerry’s is because millions of people are aware of it now thanks to the modern internet and are getting involved in the pressure. Back then? I strongly suspect Ben & Jerry’s probably got a handful of letters about it, and whether the owners actually ever saw such letters or read articles about what was going on in Palestine is up for debate. Not everyone can know anything, and there was truly a dearth of media about it in the US at the time. By the time it was well-known enough for large amounts of people to be actively pressuring them, they were owned by genuinely evil assholes, not just oblivious halfway decent people.
Also fair, but I’m a backwater hick 99.9% of my life and I knew about it. I really don’t remember how, maybe it was brought to my attention *after Unilever.
Rachel Corrie was the first I was ever exposed to it personally, and that’s because she was a local. I began doing my research on the subject after that, and I was in my mid-twenties.
Yes, I was upset before that, but I’ve got a few years on you. I’m thinking I may have heard of Ben and Jerry’s being in occupied Palestine on the site that shall not be named.
Edit; maybe not, they came online in the early aughts, so maybe I’m misremembering. Could have been a BBS or IRC or maybe ICQ or even aol 😂