Empower Mint & Hubby Hubby & Save our Swirld, oh my!

Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, Americone Dream...what do all of these ice cream flavors have in common? They’re all iconic Ben & Jerry’s flavors!!!! My mouth is watering just by typing them out.

Well you can only imagine how hungry I was for some Cherry Garcia when Sean Greenwood, the PR Grand Poobah at Ben & Jerry’s, came to my PR Writing for the Digital Age class as a guest speaker to discuss his adventures working in public relations at the world-renowned ice cream brand.

Greenwood jumped right into the discussion, bringing up social media efforts and projects he was part of. You may be familiar with their vocal and prominent social media presence. While Ben & Jerry’s does post about their unique ice cream flavors, they make it clear that they focus on social issues and politics.

Greenwood discussed how Ben & Jerry’s feels that they have the platform to have a voice and to educate their loyal customers, and they aren’t afraid to share their resources, facts and opinions. The key takeaway I found from Greenwood’s discussion is that you should not be afraid to take action and if you believe in something and are passionate about it, use that as motivation to make a difference and inspire others. Especially when you have a large platform, like Ben & Jerry’s 1.4 million followers, it’s important to use your platform and your voice to extend to your audience, followers and customers.

Greenwood delved into some projects Ben and Jerry’s has been part of to be socially responsible, not because they should, but because they want to! For example, Ben & Jerry’s re-launched the ice cream flavor ‘Chubby Hubby’ to ‘Hubby Hubby’ in honor of sam sex marriage being legalized in the state of Vermont. They went out in town and scooped ice cream and presented a press release for the historic day. Prior to this, Ben & Jerry’s had many members of the LGBTQ community working for them, and they wanted to make sure they were supported and included. So Ben & Jerry’s became one of the first businesses in the country to offer benefits to same-sex partners 30-35 years ago. Greenwood went on to discuss that the purpose of this wasn’t a marketing decision, but rather the company making a stance on their values. And this could hurt their sales, or help them, but it doesn’t matter to them.

Greenwood also discussed Ben & Jerry’s motivation to learn about racial justice. He explained that Ben & Jerry’s has been working with a few organizations over the past five years, including NAACP, ACLU and Color of Change, to provide the company content, and to help grow their institutional knowledge around systematic bias. Greenwood made it clear that this education isn’t just external, but it’s also internal where there are different groups to go over company culture to make Ben & Jerry’s a comfortable environment for everyone. Ben & Jerry’s went on to post on their website their journey around racial justice and their adventure in North Carolina where they spoke with people from NGO groups (Non-Governmental Organization) on how to combat racial injustices. Then, Ben & Jerry’s followed up to give insight to their followers and customers and began a campaign called ‘Democracy is in your hands.’

Overall, Greenwood brought up many compelling points that make it clear that not only is Ben & Jerry’s committed to making their community better, but also that it’s important to learn while also educating others around you.