Gay Ice Cream
Written by Brooke Musterman on September 8, 2009
Ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s is legitimizing same sex marriage along with their home state of Vermont. To celebrate the union, Ben & Jerry’s has renamed their Chubby Hubby flavor to Hubby Hubby for the month of September.
Ever the activists, this is not the first time that BJ has gotten behind a liberal cause.
Even selling out to the food giant Unilever didn’t thwart the leftist efforts of self-described ex-hippies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. To celebrate Barack Obama’s election, they renamed an ice cream flavor, “Yes Pecan.”
“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, Ben & Jerry’s CEO.
This has, as you can imagine, stirred some naysayers (or some “damn hippie,” sayers) from the right; People saying that politics and ice cream is a dish served cold.
I have no problem with Ben & Jerry exercising their right to distribute liberal propaganda, just as I’m sure they won’t have a problem with opponents exercising their right not to buy BJ ice cream anymore.
People have (and should) use their respective platforms to advocate whatever they want to. Many say, “keep your laws out of my ice cream,” but I disagree. In America, you are not only allowed to preach whatever politics you want, but I think on some levels you’d be remiss if you didn’t.
Keeping in mind that by doing so, you could be alienating a large customer base. I often enjoy my right to speak out about conservative values, why should liberals be denied that same right, just because they may be wrong?
Chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s, Walt Freese says, “At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” “From the very beginning of our 30 year history, we have supported equal rights for all people. The legalisation of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction and something worth celebrating with peace, love and plenty of ice cream.”
Rob Frankel, author of the book Revenge of Brand X doesn’t seem to think that this latest endorsement will do much harm for their customer base. “Coming up with Hubby Hubby has no real downside, because the brand is for Ben & Jerry’s constituents,” “More than likely, the radical right would have boycotted Ben & Jerry’s a long time ago.”
What are your thoughts? Was this a bad move for the ice cream corporation?
Will this affect your choice of ice cream?
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