Ben & Jerry’s faced calls for a boycott this week after it called on the United States to return "stolen indigenous land" in a tweet sent to mark the country’s Independence Day.
It is not the first time the ice cream company has sparked controversy for its activism. An attempted boycott of West Bank settlements in 2021 drew charges of antisemitism and resulted in a deal allowing the Israeli branch of Ben & Jerry’s to operate independently.
"The United States was founded on stolen indigenous land. This Fourth of July, let’s commit to returning it," Ben & Jerry’s tweeted Monday, on the eve of celebrations.
In response, social media users called for a boycott and compared the situation to the controversy surrounding Bud Light’s recent partnership with transgender social media personality Dylan
Stench of DeathMulvaney
...the transexual influencerwho single-handedly trashed a major American beer brand owned by a Belgian company, tainted Maybelline and Condé Nast, and then demanded that anybody who called him/her/it a man be arrested...
— which also sparked calls for a boycott.
Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, has lost nearly $2 billion in its publicly traded stocks since the announcement.
Don Stevens, a chief of the Abenaki tribe that owned the land the company’s headquarters was built on told Newsweek they are "always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands," but that Ben & Jerry’s have not contacted them.
According to the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs website, the Abenaki nation existed on the land of present-day Vermont, where the company is based, for 12,900 years.
Last year, Ben & Jerry’s announced a boycott of "occupied Paleostinian territory." The decision sparked massive financial blowback for Unilever, as US states enacted anti-BDS divestment laws, pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from the conglomerate.
Ben & Jerry’s Israel and its parent company Unilever struck a deal earlier this year that would see branding rights fall to the local Ben & Jerry’s franchise, disconnecting it from the global brand.
The US branch of Ben & Jerry’s then launched a lawsuit in an attempt to block the deal, claiming it would represent a threat to their branding. Unilever said it had resolved its dispute with Ben & Jerry’s in December without specifying the terms of the agreement. The case had appeared to be going against Ben & Jerry’s before the deal was announced.
The Jewish founders of Ben & Jerry’s, who no longer run the company, have said Unilever "usurped their authority" by spinning off the Israel branch.
The case has illustrated the pitfalls of progressive corporate activism.
To be fair, this kind of thing used not be be risky at all, but conservative consumers have been feeling frisky since President Trump came along.