Ben & Jerrys: Peace, Love and Ice
In response to the public outcry against racial inequality sparked by the assassination of George Floyd in May this year, countless brands rushed to send messages of support to the Black Lives Matter movement. While many acted in good faith, much of the news has been viewed as misdirected at best and extremely ignorant at worst (this is Popeye's chicken). The 704-word Ben & Jerry text, on the other hand, was hailed as an example of how to get it right.
The post, titled "Silence Is Not An Option," which is detailed and empowering, linked Floyd and other victims of deadly police violence like Breonna Taylor with historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. He called the "inhuman police brutality" evoked by a culture of white supremacy perpetuated ”. It was highlighted how that moment was a consequence of the "poisonous seeds that were planted on the shores of our land in Jamestown in 1619 when the first enslaved men and women came to this continent". It supported the creation of a "national task force to draft bipartisan laws to end racist violence and increase police accountability".
Much of his response lay not only in the power of his vision, but also in Ben & Jerry's longstanding commitment to racial justice. Whether in terms of sustainability, asylum rights or economic justice, as a brand, Ben & Jerry & # 39; s seems to have done what many consider to be almost impossible: Over the past 40 years, it has succeeded in building the belief in “peace, love and Ice cream "profitably and, above all, authentic.
Dave Rapaport is Ben & Jerry's Global Social Mission Officer. I spoke to him about the way Ben & Jerry & # 39; s managed to communicate so credibly in this area, as well as the role of cause marketing and purpose-driven brands in the broader sense.
Anna Burzlaff: Tell me about your role in Ben & Jerry. What does a Global Social Mission Officer do? How does that fit with the Ben & Jerry brand?
Dave Rapaport: Ben & Jerry is guided by a three-part mission that includes the social mission, the economic mission, and the product mission. I think it's still pretty unique in the way that these things are always intertwined and recognized as being responsible for our success. In this sense, social mission is part of the company and realistically part of most people's work. I lead the Social Mission team, which includes staff who work full-time to promote the values that underpin our social mission, and that truly flow from the values of our co-founders (Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield). We have started talking about this in three different areas: human rights and dignity, social and economic justice, and environmental protection, restoration and regeneration.
And so our team does it in two different ways. We have people focused on how we promote these values through the operation of our business and our value chain. So that's the traditional sustainability function that is currently focused on greenhouse gas emissions and plastic. We have a very robust set of values that support programs, the largest of which, of course, is our main ingredient, dairy. We are also working to promote racial justice in our business.
And then we have a team of activism managers in many markets around the world where we promote our values through activist fanism in partnership with NGOs. In Europe we focus on refugee and asylum rights. Here in the US it's racial justice and in the past few years we have focused on criminal justice reform and we are also working on climate change. We keep working on things like LGBTQ + rights and some other things that we have dealt with historically in different parts of the world.
AB: You mentioned three key areas: human rights, social and economic justice, and environmental protection, restoration and regeneration. What is the process of deciding what to support and how to proceed?
DR: We have quite a legacy in things we work on, there is a lot of continuity. We draw on the work that has been done over the years and provide a fairly defined playing field for ourselves, although it's still quite wide. I think in terms of the internal areas where we try to have a direct impact on our business, a lot of it depends on a sense of materiality. But we are also talking about the idea of linked prosperity as a business model.
That is why we make sure we pay living wages to all of our employees and employees in our factories. Our values and procurement programs focus in part on farmers' incomes. There are many migrant workers here in the US. We are the first dairy company to partake in what is called milk with dignity. This means that we give farmers a premium that funds compliance with a range of worker-centric standards for labor practices, including wages and days off, and housing conditions, and many things in general.
To achieve justice, we don't just need thoughts and prayers – we need education and action. The thread below offers a few opportunities to learn more about our country's history, its impact on the present, and the underlying conditions that led to the assassination of George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/GYUcvb4w0N
– Ben & Jerry & # 39; s (@benandjerrys) June 5, 2020
Regarding the external work on activism, we are guided by our NGO partners. We believe that to have credibility with them and to really drive the change we are seeking, you have to have a long lifespan in terms of focus and continuity. It is recognized that these are long-term efforts. These efforts evolve with conditions. A big part of our job is understanding the landscape so we can choose the right partners. But once we deal with them, we tend to stick with them for an extended period of time. What we are really doing is bringing the tools we have in the business to the table in the service of their endeavors.
AB: I think I read somewhere that you once spent several days in the Nevada desert being chased by security forces in helicopters after you tried to stop a nuclear test explosion.
DR: I worked as an activist for many years and a dozen or 13 of those with Greenpeace in the 80s and 90s. And so I, yes …
AB: How important is that credibility to everything Ben & Jerry does? The fact that the brand's social mission is led by someone who has spent 12 or 13 years with Greenpeace, the fact that you have a legacy and a longevity around human rights, social justice and the environment
DR: There's no doubt that it's helpful. I'm actually quite young at Ben & Jerry, just three years later, but the person on my team who leads our activism work has also been with Greenpeace for a few years, Chris Miller. And he's been with Ben & Jerry a lot longer than me. NGOs are generally reluctant to trust companies, which is perfectly reasonable. So it just takes time to build relationships and gain and gain trust by working at Ben & Jerry. I don't expect anyone to treat Ben & Jerry differently because of my background. They really have to see what we do every day to decide whether or not to trust us.
AB: In a previous interview, you said you think that only a minority of Ben & Jerry's fans are aware of its social mission. Why do you think this is?
DR: Well, I probably think a number of things. Most people buy ice cream because they want to enjoy the euphoria of eating ice cream. And so there are quite a few fans of Ben & Jerry for whom this is their primary type of engagement – the food. We have many components to our branding and many different messages: Many are all about fun and ice cream. However, I think that as time goes on, awareness of our social mission will grow, we will be able to use more tools like social media, and do more targeted messaging.
There are many people who are generally not into social activism. So, among other things, we're trying to get more people to do it. We are increasingly engaging our fans in certain ways for certain endeavors that we are part of.
AB: At the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 in Paris, Ben & Jerry rolled an ice cream cone with a melting globe with a globe in a giant paper mache statue. It's very easy to move into a worthy space when we talk about social mission, but the tone of Ben & Jerry is different.
DR: Oh yeah. We are like any brand that tries to get involved within the framework of the company's image and relate to our fans as they know and understand us and what they expect from us. There is a magic that has ice, right? And we try to use that. One of our secret powers is to use ice cream and fun in a way that involves people. It's a hell of a lot easier to talk to people about important things when you scoop ice cream.
AB: You've talked a little about how people may not necessarily be in their headspace or deal with or want to face some of these social issues. Do you think the landscape is changing? Do you find that audiences are becoming more attuned and more expectant of brands that have a perspective on these issues?
DR: Oh, absolutely. And I think that's been happening for a long time. I think we saw it really speed up during Covid-19. In my opinion, the past year has been a time when people have been forced to think more clearly about what is important to them. We see a lot of research suggesting that more and more people are expecting the brands they deal with to reflect their values. You want to do business with people who make things happen that are important to them.
AB: Are you afraid it will become a trend? Or are you worried that other brands will see this as a trend?
DR: To the extent that people put their values into practice and care more about the essentials, this is certainly not a problem.
One of the other things that I think is happening in society is that people are becoming increasingly attuned to whether or not companies are sincere, sincere, or authentic in their endeavors. I think a company that wants to try to exploit the idea of purpose without being authentic is going to receive some hard blows. You can see that in the Pepsi ad with Kendall Jenner, for example.
AB: Are there certain things that you have done as Global Social Mission Officer that you are particularly proud of?
DR: I see my job being to facilitate the work of the great team that we have and to work with people across the company. I'm very proud of the great job they all have done over the past year, based on years of work in the Black Lives Movement and the support of Black Lives Matter six years ago. We worked a lot with our NGO partners, as well as company statements that were sometimes found to be quite controversial. All of this enables us to do what many considered to be one of the definitive corporate statements following the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others.
It was gratifying to be part of the work that has helped set a meaningful standard in the corporate sector and lead the way in what it means to be anti-racist and dismantle white supremacy. We were very proud to be a part of it, but it is more of a feeling of greater obligation and responsibility to ensure that this movement does not go away without real progress in that direction. We can finally overcome this, this history of racism in the US and, in its way, in different parts of the world.
Images courtesy of Ben & Jerry
I had one more thought. I think one of the keys to what made Ben & Jerry possible to do what we do is that we talk about values and a purpose that emanates from your people – the people who started the company. And since each of us joined the company, we brought our pieces to it. It's a living, breathing thing, that sense of purpose that evolves within all of us, but it's based on a desire to make real changes in the world to serve more progressive values. You can't duplicate that. Progress has to be real in order to add something real and bring about real change in the world. It's not necessarily very successful if it's not based on it. It has to be more about that than branding. This is not something that many want to understand or think about deeply enough to duplicate.
AB: To briefly go into your point, in this case, is it better not to say anything if it's not branded into your DNA?
DR: Well, it's best to be authentic. Those of us with privileges can choose where we work. (We want to) work for employers who give us the opportunity to do what we do as an expression of our values and help us to become who we want to be in the world. Wherever this opportunity presents itself, every business should understand that this is an essential element of being a successful business today. So it's not about whether or not to say something, it's about whether or not you enable a real purpose. And those who don't will have limited success in the future.
This piece was originally published in Truth – a magazine set up by the Truth Cultural Insight and Strategy Agency. The Truth is devoted to understanding the social norms, values and practices of consumers at the local and global levels. The first issue of Truth's magazine The Now Normal examines how Covid-19 has affected our behavior and how it could shape the future. trueisglobal.com