Recently, Ben and Jerry’s sparked controversy over a woke tweet attacking America on the 4th of July. It would appear the ice cream company has not learned from the famous examples of Bud Light, Kohls, or Target that woke activism is not a great business model. Accordingly, Ben and Jerry’s parent company Unilever has lost billions of dollars in market cap.
While some companies elect to post a celebratory, patriotic message to their social media pages on the 4th of July, Ben and Jerry’s kicked their woke virtue signaling into fifth gear and attacked the founding of the United States. The post featured a graphic with the text, “The United States was Founded on Stolen Indigenous Land. This Fourth of July, Let’s Commit to Returning It.”
The post did not specify how exactly the ice cream company would return the land but included the caption, “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it. Learn more and take action now.” Looking at the response to the post, social media users were having none of Ben and Jerry’s antics.
Many users called out the ice cream company and urged them to take their own advice and revoke ownership of its factories and stores to native Americans. Famous country music singer John Rich said, “@benandjerrys should give all their stores to the Native American tribes that originally owned those zip codes. Cmon Ben and Jerry, be leaders. Retweet if you agree.”
One user in the comments section of Ben and Jerry’s post agreed with Rich, “How about YOU take action now! Dismantle all factories and distribution warehouses located in the USA so that you aren’t part of the problem you are espousing, otherwise like most Leftist, you are hypocrites. SMH”.
“I look forward to the virtue signaling Ben & Jerry’s returning their factory’s land to the Abenaki and Mohican Native Americans that have lived in Vermont for 10,000 years,” another person said. The response underneath the post was overwhelmingly critical of the woke virtue signaling.
Another user pointed out the complexity of “returning” the supposedly stolen land, alleging it is not as simple as Ben and Jerry’s makes it seem. “Please help me learn more & take action. In my part of Texas, the Apache took the land from the Tonkawa. Then the Comanche took the land from the Apache. The Mexicans took it from the Spaniards. The Texians took it from the Mexicans. Then Anglos took it. So, who gets the land?” the user said.
Users on social media have called for consumers to give the woke ice cream company the “Bud Light Treatment” and boycott the company. Others have pointed out that a boycott could already be working as Ben and Jerry’s parent company Unilever has reportedly lost roughly $2.5 billion in market cap.
Some social media users have even researched every brand underneath Unilever’s ownership and called for boycotts against them as well. This is similar to how other Anheuser-Busch brands are being affected by the Bud Light boycott.
Although Ben and Jerry’s has a long history of woke virtue signaling, conservative consumers have been encouraged by the success of other powerful backlashes against leftist propaganda from corporations. We’ll see if Ben and Jerry’s becomes the latest example of “go woke, go broke.”