Brand of the Year

Ben & Jerry's

During a year when Americans increasingly trusted business leaders more than elected politicians over matters of principle and trust, Ben & Jerry’s set the pace for corporate responsibility like a group of small town idealists but delivered it with the powerful amplification that comes from its big company perch. Certainly, the Vermont-hippie founded ice cream company has never been quiet on the activism front, but this summer it led companies from Wall Street to Main Street into social and political discussion when it drew on its moral credibility and brand equity to challenge the nation and its elected officials to do better on issues of race. Within days of the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police officers, the company’s board and leadership delivered a challenge to the rest of corporate America, setting an example with its widely-circulated “We Must Dismantle White Supremacy: Silence is not an option” statement. That Ben & Jerry’s was able to do so without claims of craven opportunism was because it has always done so, its stances on issues ranging from global warming to rBST  to gun violence meaning that it wasn’t jumping into the fight opportunistically, rather that it had always been in the fight. Ben & Jerry’s was a prime mover in the early days of the natural foods movement, with its triple-bottom-line philosophy remaining embedded in its operating structure even through an IPO and eventual buyout by Unilever. By sticking to those principles, it reminded us what responsible business leadership from idealistic founders -- and ice cream -- could mean to a country facing a long, hot summer.


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