How Ben & Jerry’s has found the balance between activism and advertising

Activism has been a core part of the Ben & Jerry’s brand since the beginning. While it initially relied on word of mouth to grow rather than traditional advertising channels, the brand has leaned heavily into social media over the last decade, per Curley. In doing so, the company’s in-house team as well as external agencies — the company takes a hybrid approach to its marketing and advertising efforts — have figured out how to balance more traditional brand advertising efforts with social activism.

Over the last year, many marketers have moved away from commenting on social issues or making activism part of their brand purpose. This shift has come as there has been a proliferation of boycotts, with an anti-woke backlash hitting brands like Bud Light and seemingly having a real impact on their bottom lines. Prior to that shift, brand purpose had been en vogue with brands commenting on social issues more regularly following a push from consumers for brands to take a stand on certain things, which at times could ring hollow.

However, with Ben & Jerry’s social activism part of its foundation, the brand doesn’t have plans to change course. “We were doing it before 2020, before 2016, we’ve been doing it from the beginning and just because others are backing down doesn’t mean we are,” said Curley. “For us this wasn’t jumping on a trend, it’s literally core to why we exist as a business. For us, it’s not, ‘What’s our purpose-driven stuff for this year?’ It’s more, ‘This is the work we do and our job is continuing to lead in the space so others can follow.'”

Ben & Jerry’s in-house creative and design team works on both traditional advertising campaigns, like the company’s recent non-dairy ice cream launch and last month’s Times Square billboard that poked fun at shrinkflation, as well as its activism efforts. They work on making the brand’s marketing efforts cohesive by using Ben & Jerry’s “approachable, optimistic and forward-looking vibe for the whole thing,” explained Ellen Kresky, senior global creative director at Ben & Jerry’s. “We use that [tone] to make some of these very heavy issues approachable for people. It invites them in instead of making them feel they’re excluded like that,” Kresky said.

But much of what Ben & Jerry’s does when it comes to activism efforts doesn’t fit into CPG marketing calendars, explained Curley, who added that the brand works to be a “living and breathing part of culture and in some rare instances actually create culture.”

“The activism itself is really run entirely differently than a product campaign or other marketing,” Curley said, noting that the company has an activism department with a global social mission director as well as activism managers in multiple countries. “They are activists, they come from the political and NGO world. They come from a space of that and that’s their expertise. We, as the marketing and kind of comms and design teams, partner with the activism team.”

Curley continued: “We take their lead in terms of what the strategy is, in terms of what issues we’re engaging on and who we’re partnering with. It’s almost like that’s where the brief comes from. And then we build campaigns to connect with our fans and get them to join these movements. But where it starts is entirely different and it’s definitely not marketing.” 

This dual approach along with Ben & Jerry’s consistency with social activism through outs history is likely why the brand’s activism-led marketing approach is seen as authentic, explained Eunice Shin, CEO of the Elume Group, a consultancy on consumer and cultural impact. “They came out bold and unapologetic about what they stood for,” said Shin. “It’s that authentic element of who they are and has shown up in that consistency of the brand.”

Consistency makes brands who put an emphasis on activism in the way Ben & Jerry’s does truly stand out, noted Shin, who added that “the consumer respect and acknowledgement is there because it’s authentic to what they say they do and that authenticity comes out through consistency.”