Occupy Wall Street Protestors Have Split Feelings About Ben & Jerry's

Daily Finance:

Ben & Jerry's fed 600 protesters ice cream at Occupy Wall Street's home base in New York's Zuccotti Park on Tuesday. The Vermont-based ice cream vendor is the first large company to have declared public support of the movement, expressing its "deepest admiration" for the protesters in a statement released last weekend via the company's website.

Read the whole story: Daily Finance

Comments

[ChaCubed]

04:47 PM on 10/13/2011

Yes, I can see them now, licking the drops of ice cream from their lips saying, "Oh, I feel so compromised." I see a new Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream flavor in the headline: "Occupy Wall Street Split". :-)

You don't want free ice cream, don't take free ice cream. I think it's great they were supporting the protestors.

[glockman]

02:07 PM on 10/13/2011

""Ben and Jerry's is a corporate entity." Foreman points out. "Their primary interest is profit and giving away ice cream doesn't change or threaten that."

So what's wrong with profit? It's one thing to protest against the corporate owned government and how legislation is influenced by corporate money (I agree with this), it's quite another to protest simply against profit. There's nothing wrong with profit itself, only when profit stand in the way of equality through the rule of law.

[Totto]

10:22 AM on 10/13/2011

Anything that upsets Unilever is OK by me.

[AlwaysRight213]

09:54 AM on 10/13/2011

Is Michelle O. OK with this?


New B&J flavor. OWS, Full of Fruits, Nuts and 99% hot air.

[Totto]

10:25 AM on 10/13/2011

That's your Bilious Bagger friends.

[slickbottom]

01:46 PM on 10/13/2011

I preferred Ben and Jerry's "Teabagger Delight". Vanilla ice cream, with extra added fat and assorted nuts.

[Fabini]

09:47 AM on 10/13/2011

Is anyone supplying the protesters with proteins, nuts, fruits, and vegetables? These folks need truly nutritious food not fattening ice cream. And don't respond with some b.s. about ice cream being nutritious. It is not. B&J's commitment is for publicity to push their sales forward only. Today B&J is a brand owned by Unilever, not too cool guys in a converted gas station.

[nancytheragingliberal]

08:16 AM on 10/13/2011

Chunky Monkey, followed by Health Bar; I love you guys and will buy more and more of your great ice cream. I toured your factory in VT and was impressed. Thanks for supporting the 'little people'. You are true Patriots, not that T-creeps, playing "let's Pretend."

[tyrant510]

02:00 AM on 10/13/2011

don't believe the hype! ben & jerry's is no longer ben or jerry. it is owned by huge conglomerate unilever. it is also no longer all natural (they've had to change the label as now it is made with high fructose corn syrup).

[signgrrl]

03:05 PM on 10/13/2011

are they at least not using bovine growth hormone ? they didn't used to.

[hipichick7]

09:10 PM on 10/12/2011

I've been a big fan of Ben and Jerry's ice cream since 1979. I especially love Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, New York Super Fudge Chunk, and my new favorite Bonnaroo Buzz!

[blndgenie]

08:11 PM on 10/12/2011

after seeing lots of the protestors, I hope B & J doesn't offer 'Schweddy Balls' icecream.....they're obviously lots of those already.

[Bruce84391]

07:51 PM on 10/12/2011

So where is Starbucks!

[DawnK]

07:09 PM on 10/12/2011

I see no problem with a responsible corporation like Ben & Jerry's supporting and even donating to the Occupy Wall St movement. There has to be room for corporations, government and banks but those entities need to remember who fuels them. Those entities have a commitment and responsibility to the 99% of us that make them go. They have forgotten that and have elected to put greedy bratty immature CEO's and CFO's in place. America can be competitive if you corporations, banks and the government choose to instate standards of quality for example in manufacturing, standards of quality in customer service, standards in respect for the consumer, employee and fellow taxpayer.

[tyrant510]

02:01 AM on 10/13/2011

is ben & jerry's responsible? remember, they are owned by the huge conglomerate, unilever.

[DawnK]

04:33 PM on 10/13/2011

I actually found that out after I let my comment fly. They used to be a socially responsible.

[Skeetshooter]

07:05 PM on 10/12/2011

Some corporations are greedy and self serving, and some give back. It's no more fair to generalize about them than it is to generalize about individuals. -Well maybe a little more fair, since corporations exist largely to shield individuals from personal responsibility...

[TheyAllSuck]

06:52 PM on 10/12/2011

Leave it to mainstream media to discredit #occupywallstreet protesters with FUD.

Its NOT a protest against corporations, its a protest against WALL STREET. Its the bankers and the hedge funds that have destroyed the US economy, not companies that actually hire people and create products to sell.

[littlepuffycloud]

06:34 PM on 10/12/2011

OT sort of..B & J's new Schweddy Balls ice cream is delicious.
We gave a couple of pints to our friend to go along with his famous SpicyNuts he makes and gives to friends at every holiday.

[leeskyblue]

06:27 PM on 10/12/2011

I too am concerned about "co-opting".

Then someone reminded me that every successful movement generally is tempered by a sense of humor, which implies needed flexibility and even implies a degree of insight and temperance.

It goes nowhere if it remains a charming experiment by ingenuous kids who can't tell the difference between a friendly spontaneous gesture by a couple of good natured guys who fondly remember the sixties, and real manipulators.

This movement needs to keep its youth and needs to grow up and do both simultaneously and with good speed. Needed are savvy older people like representative John Lewis who put his life on the line, has decades of experience and has the wisdom to distinguish between friends and folly.
Else it will be co-opted and probably we won't even know it. We darn well need Mr. Lewis and a few hundred other older and wiser heads.
Blessings and good speed.

One more thing -- all of us are war profiteers, child labor exploiters, ravishers of the environment, There is no way to escape entirely the mix that is our economic and social culture.
My point is that absolutely avoiding someone or something that somehow might make a profit off of our energy instead of using ordinary ongoing good sense and a sense of humor, just isn't productive,