Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield discusses the brand's willingness to take stands on controversial social issues.
Assertion Supported
Pillsbury threatened independent distributors who carried Ben & Jerry's
“Pillsbury had bought Haagen-Dazs, so they owned them, and they went to independent ice cream distributors, who were distributing all sorts of different brands of ice creams, and you know, told them that if those distributors continued to deliver Ben & Jerry's,…”
Assertion Supported
Ben & Jerry's supported the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street movement
“The company came out in support of Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, which, you know, is amazing because that was essentially an anti-corporate movement.”
Assertion Supported
Greenfield: Ben & Jerry's publicly supported Occupy Wall Street
“The company came out in support of Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, which, you know, is amazing because that, that was essentially an anti-corporate movement.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders altered early business projections when numbers showed failure
“When we first wrote out and figured out our projections for how much ice cream we would sell and how much it would cost, the projections told us that We weren't going to sell enough ice cream to stay in business. So we just changed the projections.”
Insight
Ice cream eaters prefer big chunks over evenly distributed pieces
“So I was arguing for having a larger number of smaller chunks that were well distributed throughout the ice cream. And, you know, Ben was saying, no, what people want, and this is what Ben wanted, of course, but what people want is a really big chunk, and they…”
Assertion Supported
Unilever's acquisition offer left the Ben & Jerry's board no alternative
“Well, it was a public company which meant that anybody could own shares, and Unilever ended up offering so much money that the board of the company couldn't find an alternative for the shareholders that they thought was acceptable.”