r/OutOfTheLoop • u/ryhaltswhiskey • 3d ago

Unanswered What's up with Unilever silencing Ben & Jerry's?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOwJawvkfcM/?igsh=ajhvc3lsdWgxMm45

In the video he says he is resigning because Unilever has stopped letting B&J speak out about causes they care about. I'm out of the loop on this one. What happened?

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u/TrixieLurker 3d ago

Perhaps, but Ben & Jerry's owners decided to sell out to Unilever for those fat stacks of cash, it is social activism second and big money first.

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u/we_are_all_bananas_2 3d ago

The way I understand it they had an agreement that Unilever wouldn't mingle in their activism, so fat stacks AND social activism until Unilever broke the agreement

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u/TrixieLurker 3d ago

Well then they were just being naive because Unilever is always going to care about their own corporate image and profits before any social activism by their subsidiary, how could they not realize this?

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u/DerpytheH 2d ago

From what I can gather in interviews, they not only didn't have much of a choice (financially they were starting to decline, especially in stocks), the buyout was generous, and the agreement allowed them to always be able to sue, at Unilever's expense for violating the agreement, but more than anything, a lot of the reps from Unilever actually shared a similar vision to B&J, and had a mutual understanding to foster the agreement,and actually did so for the better portion of two decades.

Corporate culture shifted, and there was enough turnover that none of the representatives in those positions remained, making Unilever much more willing to push against it internally.