The founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, were arrested Monday at the Democracy Spring protests at the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post reported. Their company’s Twitter account featured the two in a post captioned with, “Our co-founders got arrested today on the US Capitol steps.” The two men were arrested for “unlawful demonstration activities,” according to CNN.
The Ben & Jerry’s account then continued to tweet and retweet more support for the Democracy Spring movement.
Democracy Spring is a nonpartisan political movement that gained traction mid-April. Its motives are to get rid of “big money corruption” and “voter suppression,” according to its website. There have been numerous arrests and other celebrities involved in the movement, including Mark Ruffalo and Rosario Dawson.
Here, Cohen and Greenfield are exerting their rights as American citizens to protest whatever they like wherever they like — at the risk of getting arrested, of course. The two are making a statement in a way similar to how we at The Daily Free Press, along with other newspapers, write opinionated editorials.
The company’s website even featured an official update on the situation, complete with pictures and an urge for Ben & Jerry’s consumers to support the movement, written in the trademark Ben & Jerry’s font.
This is only to be expected from a company like Ben & Jerry’s. One quick glance at the Ben & Jerry’s Twitter page shows an accurate representation of the company’s aesthetic. Sandwiched between a tweet about fair trade vanilla and a 4/20 ice cream special, the tweet about the arrest fits right in. No one should be surprised.
The difference between this statement and the economic boycott that occurred earlier this year in North Carolina and Georgia is that this stance is being taken directly by the company’s two co-founders. There isn’t just an official press release from the company giving support to this movement. There are photos online of Cohen and Greenfield being arrested. They’re not hiding anything.
Any resulting boycotts are all natural and good. They’re only expected when something like this happens. If Chick-fil-A can survive boycotts brought on by homophobic remarks, then Ben & Jerry’s can surely survive boycotts in response to the founders’ arrest. People are quick to forget that buying a product is a vote straight from the wallet.
There are probably a great number of employees who disapprove of the way Cohen and Greenfield displayed their political statements so obviously. But is it better to publicly know a company’s political leanings as opposed to having money traded behind closed doors?
It’s not necessarily better this way. Sure, the company seems a lot more personal because its co-founders are out and about supporting what they want to, but most of the coverage will likely focus on the two men getting arrested and not their entire reason for being at the U.S. Capitol. The attention their fame brings to the Democracy Spring movement is likely to be overshadowed by that same celebrity status.
The fact that two founders of a major company are protesting creates an interesting exercise in exposure. If for some reason Americans didn’t know of Ben & Jerry’s before, they sure do now.
Ben & Jerry’s consumers may be turned away by the duo’s overt political stance, but as long as Cohen and Greenfield don’t sell exclusive goods, there’s no harm done. If people don’t like it, they can pick another ice cream to binge on.
Ben and Jerry just can’t be separated from Cohen and Greenfield. The two are their own people, and they have a right to exercise their rights as American citizens, and not just ice cream moguls — even if some believe there should be a separation between desserts and state.
