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Ben & Jerry's

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Ben & Jerry's
IndustryRetail
Founded1978
HeadquartersSouth Burlington, Vermont, United States
Key people
Walt Freese[1] (CEO)
ProductsIce Cream
OwnerUnilever, PLC
Websitehttp://www.benjerry.com/

Ben & Jerry's is a brand of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United States, with the main factory in Waterbury, Vermont and is owned by the conglomerate Unilever.

History

Ben & Jerry's ice-cream branch at the United Square Mall, Singapore

In 1977, lifelong, ex-hippie friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Pennsylvania State University. In May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 investment the pair opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont. The parlor quickly became popular in the local community because of their innovative flavors, made from fresh Vermont milk and cream and "large portions of whatever ingredients they felt tasted good on the day of making!" [citation needed]. In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now a nationwide annual celebration. They combined ice cream making with social activism.{elaborate} In 1980 Ben and Jerry rented space in an old spool and bobbin mill on South Champlain Street in Burlington and began packing their ice cream in pints. In 1981, the first Ben & Jerry’s franchise opened on Route 7 in Shelburne, Vermont. In 1983, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was used to build “the world’s largest ice cream sundae” in St. Albans, Vermont; the sundae weighed 27,102 pounds. In 1984, Häagen-Dazs tried to limit distribution of Ben & Jerry’s in Boston, prompting Ben & Jerry’s to file suit against the parent company, Pillsbury, in its now famous “What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?” campaign. In 1987, Häagen-Dazs again tried to enforce exclusive distribution, and Ben & Jerry’s filed its second lawsuit against the Pillsbury Company. In 1985, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation was established at the end of the year with a gift from Ben and Jerry to fund community-oriented projects; it was then provided with 7.5% of the company’s annual pre-tax profits. In 1986, Ben & Jerry’s launched its “Cowmobile,” a modified mobile home used to distribute free scoops of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in a unique, cross-country “marketing drive” -- driven and served by Ben and Jerry themselves. The “Cowmobile” burned to the ground outside of Cleveland four months later, but there were no injuries. Ben said it looked like “the world’s largest baked Alaska.”[2] In 1988, the pair won the title of "U.S Small Business Persons Of The Year," awarded to them by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In 1992, Ben & Jerry’s joined in a cooperative campaign with the national non-profit Children’s Defense Fund; the campaign goal was to bring children’s basic needs to the top of the national agenda. Over 70,000 postcards were sent to Congress concerning kids and other national issues.

In April 2000, Ben & Jerry's announced its acquisition by multinational food giant Unilever.[3] Unilever said it hopes to carry on the tradition of engaging "in these critical, global economic and social missions." In 2001, Ben & Jerry’s completed transition to Eco-Pint packaging, which packaged all pint flavors in unbleached paperboard Eco-Pint containers; using brown-kraft unbleached paperboard is a critical first step toward a totally biodegradable pint made without added chlorine. Due to increasing supply, quality, and cost challenges, Ben and Jerry's discontinued their use of the Eco-Pint in 2006, transitioning to a pint container made out of a bleached paperboard that is more readily available and that has superior forming characteristics. "Ben and Jerry's Social and Environmental Assessment 2006".

Although the founders are still engaged with the company, they do not hold any board or management position and are not involved in day-to-day management of the company.

Collaboration

Ben & Jerry's has collaborated with a large number of organizations, including many NGOs. Recently, the company has worked with the World Wildlife Fund and explorer Marc Cornelissen to open the Climate Change College. Its aims are to educate normal young people on the science, the politics and the campaign strategies behind climate change so that they can then produce a successful campaign of their own. Students become ambassadors for preventing global warming and do their own research in the Arctic. [citation needed]

Free Cone Day

Free Cone Day is an annual event held in late April or early May, in which Ben & Jerry's scoop shops give out free ice cream cones. This year's event, which took place on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, marked the company's 30th annual Free Cone Day.

Over one million free cones are given away each year, prompting the company's ad slogan "Be One In A Million." Charitable organizations are often present at the stores each year and enjoy a significant amount of fundraising success. Sometimes the event is scheduled to coincide with Earth Day and sometimes volunteers are on hand with clipboards and voter registration forms to help those who would like to register to vote.

The first Free Cone Day was held on May 5, 1979. It was done by Ben and Jerry as a customer and staff appreciation event for the one year anniversary of their ice cream store's opening.

Flavors

Main article: Ben & Jerry's flavors

Ben & Jerry has had a few spotlights on TV. In an 1998 episode of the Simpsons, "Lisa Gets an "A"", Homer mentions Cherry Garcia by name along with other spoof flavors, including Milli Vanilla, Honey Bono, Desmond Tutti-Frutti, Candy Warhol, Xavier Nougat, and Sherbet Hoover. In addition, the blackboard gag at the beginning of the episode was "I WILL NOT SCREAM / FOR ICE CREAM."

There is a reference to Ben & Jerry's in the popular "Queer as Folk (North American TV series)" in first season,episode 6. A certain flavor is referenced, the Chubby Hubby (Ben & Jerry's flavor). The episode was aired in 2000.

Ben & Jerry appeared on the Colbert Report on March 5, 2007 to plug their new ice cream flavor "Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream" and their "grassroots education and advocacy project" TrueMajority. Also in television Ben & Jerry's was spoofed as "Jen & Berry's Frozen Yogurt and Ice Cream" in the 2006 South Park episode "Smug Alert." In the TV series Twin Peaks, the Horne brothers are named Ben and Jerry. In one scene of the show, Ben is seen eating ice cream and commenting on the ingredients. In the medical comedy/drama, Scrubs, J.D. comments to a patient that he once got Chunky Monkey in his eye in the episode My Fifteen Seconds.

Ben & Jerry have enjoyed film time, as well. In the film City Slickers, characters Ira and Barry Shalowitz are two average-looking guys who are famous ice cream magnates, with the pun that they are based on Ben and Jerry. In Salaam Namaste, Nick, who is played by Saif Ali Khan takes Ambar, played by Preity Zinta, for Ben & Jerry's ice cream in the middle of the night. Ambar has pregnancy cravings and insists on only having Ben & Jerry's "Dark Belgian chocolate" ice cream. They proceed to drive around Melbourne looking for a Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlour that is open, and finally end up going to an expensive hotel instead. There are many Ben and Jerry's jokes and puns in the 2007 British comedy Hot Fuzz,

In the film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget jokingly says she is in a relationship with two men, "the first named Ben, the other Jerry," as she eats Ben & Jerry's ice cream. A similar joke was used in the film, Aquamarine. As the title character consumes a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Phood, she decides she doesn't need her crush, Raymond, for she has found two new men in her life: Ben and Jerry.

Ben & Jerry's is also referenced in the television show, Family Guy. As the Griffin family is watching television, two women in the television program are sitting, eating ice cream. Character A states, "You are my third best friend," to Character B. Character B then asks who the first two are, to which Character A responds: "Ben and Jerry." The lead character of Miss Congeniality, played by Sandra Bullock, orders a full pint while having lunch at a bar, which turns out to be a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Jennifer Aniston consumes a pint of Mint Chocolate Chunk in the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty.

The Ben & Jerry factory has also appeared in film; it was featured in the movie Me, Myself and Irene.

Cultural significance and reach

Ben & Jerry's was the first brand-name ice cream to be taken into space aboard the Space Shuttle. Most of the cruise ships of the Royal Caribbean International have a Ben and Jerry's scoop shop on board.[4]

Ben and Jerry's struck a deal with Six Flags and have added Ben and Jerry's to parks such as Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Six Flags New England.

The pictures of the cows on Ben & Jerry's ice cream cartons were painted by Woody Jackson. [5] [6]

Global Locations

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ben & Jerry's new CEO". Ben & Jerry's Press Release. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
  2. ^ "Jerry Greenfield". Celebrity Websites. March, 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Ben & Jerry's & Unilever to Join Forces". Ben & Jerry's Press Release. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
  4. ^ http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/experiencetype/experience/home.do?br=R&exCode=115 Retrieved 2008-02-05
  5. ^ http://www.woodyjackson.com/bennjerry.html Woody Jackson's story of involvement with Ben & Jerry at website of Holy Cow, Inc. Retrieved 2007-06-13
  6. ^ http://store.benjerry.com/benjerwoodco.html Ben and Jerry's merchandise says "©Woody Jackson cow design". Retrieved 2007-06-13
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