Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were born only four days apart in Brooklyn, New York in 1951.
Together they wowed ice-cream lovers with their frivolous flavours and charming idealism.
They rapidly became renowned for their inspired recipes and goodwill to the community
Childhood chums Ben and Jerry tried a number of jobs after high school — Ben was an ER clerk, cab driver and pottery and craft teacher, while Jerry tried his hand at being a lab technician — before they decided to indulge their mutual passion for ice-cream and found Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc in Vermont in 1978.
They rapidly became renowned for their inspired recipes and goodwill to the community. The ‘Free Cone Day’ that marked the store’s first anniversary is still an annual event, and other quirky marketing strategies such as the ‘Cow Mobile’ — which they drove across the States, dishing out free scoops to passers-by — contributed to soaring profits and won them the accolade of US Small Business of the Year in 1988.
Their franchises spread rapidly across the US (despite legal wrangles with spooked rival Häagen-Dazs) and eccentrically named flavours such as Cherry Garcia (a pun on Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead singer), Choc Fudge Brownie and Caramel Chew-Chew became famous around the world.
In 1985 the duo set up the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, which would fund community projects with 7.5% of the company’s pre-tax profits. They also set up ‘1% for Peace’, a not-for-profit initiative that aimed to redirect 1% of the national defence budget into peace-promoting activities. This has grown into their Businesses for Social Responsibility group, with offices in New York and San Francisco.
Despite professing a reluctance to do so, the pair sold their company to Unilever in 1999. The money offered was so great, they said, that their responsibility to shareholders trumped all else.
It was a sad denouement to their involvement, but at least with the sale proceeds and extra time on their hands they can still help address the world’s burning issues. And if global warming escalates despite their best efforts, then the Earth’s inhabitants will at least be able to cool down with a Chunky Monkey ice-cream.
