Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Says Brand Being ‘Destroyed’ by Magnum

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s said the ice cream brand’s new owner is in the “process of destroying” the Cherry Garcia maker’s future by stopping it from criticizing US President Donald Trump.

Ben Cohen, who started the brand in 1978 with Jerry Greenfield, is locked in a months-long fight with the Magnum Ice Cream Company over Ben & Jerry’s right to speak out on social issues. Muzzling a brand known for its progressive stance on social justice issues is hypocritical and will damage the brand, perhaps irrevocably, according to Cohen.

“Trumpism is essentially the biggest attack on the values of Ben & Jerry’s since the company was founded and Magnum has said you cannot criticize Trump,” Cohen said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Zero podcast. “Put simply, the very values-led business structure that’s made Ben & Jerry’s into the brand it is today is precisely the thing that Magnum is in the process of destroying.”

Magnum says Ben & Jerry’s continues to be a “bold voice for social justice” under its ownership. The brand has recently “spoken out on ICE, on the conflict in Iran, on freedom of speech, on migrant and refugee justice, in defense of democratic processes, and in support of No Kings Day in the US,” a Magnum spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Ben & Jerry’s, which has a long history of political activism, was bought by consumer goods giant Unilever in 2000. At the time the two parties established an unusual governance arrangement where an independent board would safeguard Ben & Jerry’s social mission while the parent company oversaw its products and financial direction.

For many years the arrangement worked well and Ben & Jerry’s expanded from four to more than 40 countries, with revenue rising more than fivefold. In 2024, Ben & Jerry’s contributed €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) to Unilever’s ice cream unit’s total €8.3 billion revenue.

The partnership soured when the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s filed a lawsuit in the US, alleging that the parent company was preventing from speaking out on the conflict in Gaza. In January, six of the nine independent board members had to resign or stepped down after retroactive nine-year term limits were introduced.

Cohen said a campaign to “free” Ben & Jerry’s from Magnum’s ownership has attracted petitions and letters in support from more than 130,000 people. However, Greenfield resigned in protest from Ben & Jerry’s in September, after almost 50 years, claiming it had lost its independence.

Jerry is “everything you’d want in a friend. But by his own admission, he’s extremely conflict averse,” said Cohen. “I don’t particularly like conflict myself, but I can take it. And this is a conflict situation — it’s a kind of battle.”

Photo: Tubs of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, manufactured by Unilever Plc, in a freezer at an Iceland Foods Ltd. supermarket in Christchurch, UK, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg