Ben & Jerry S v Unilever is the end of corporate do -gooden'sm

When the conglomerate bought the ice-cream maker, its social stances were a selling point, but the situations changed.

- Beth Kowitt

When Unilever agreed to buy Ben & Jerry's in 2000, the consumer giant was looking to acquire not just the small Vermont company's ice-cream operation but also its quirky, do-gooder ethos, which Unilever hoped to inject into its larger corporate culture.

For two decades, it was a happy union. Ben & Jerry's grew into a €1 billion (S$1.42 billion) brand and got to preserve its social mission and independence, while Unilever capitalised on its position as the poster child for the corporate doing-well-by-doing-good movement.

Those days are over. Ben & Jerry's independent board sued Unilever last week, alleging that its parent company broke an agreement by silencing its attempts to speak out in support of Palestinian rights. It's just the latest development in the falling out between the two brands, which began in 2021 when Ben & Jerry's said it would stop doing business in the Israeli-occupied West Bank because it was "inconsistent with our values".