Ben & Jerry’s said its parent, Unilever (ULVR.L), decided to oust the ice cream maker’s chief executive, Dave Stever, escalating a battle over the subsidiary’s independence on social policy issues.
In a Tuesday night filing in Manhattan federal court, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever advised on March 3 it was removing Stever without consulting directors because of his commitment to the ice cream maker’s social mission and brand integrity, not because of concerns about his job performance.
It said Unilever chastised Stever in a January performance review for “repeatedly acquiescing” to Ben & Jerry’s promotion of social goals, and has repeatedly warned personnel not to defy its efforts to “silence the social mission.”
Ben & Jerry’s also said Unilever’s attacks on its social mission have reached “new levels of oppressiveness.”
I can’t imagine ever saying anything like that. I often think bad people think they’re the good guys in their own eyes but…damn…that’s just plain evil.
At a certain point you notice that large swathes of people keep eventually deciding to use skulls as political symbols. And epistemology of pain has defined the modern right wing since it was called the alt right. They know what they intend, they just believe that the evil can be scrubbed by history.
I often think there should be one boardmember whose entire reason for being there is to say “hey that sounds like something a supervillain would do/say” when shit like this gets proposed.
They employ people for that very reason. It’s called Public Relations. When they hear something that sounds villainous, their job is to sanitize the message before it’s sent out to the public.
But, that’s only during a neoliberal zeitgeist where companies implement half-assed programs like DEI, pink and rainbow washing advertising, etc. because it’s the mainstream. As soon as Trump took office, they shifted their strategy, which includes their public relations. They ditched the flowery language and diversity campaigns because they don’t feel they need to appeal to the consumer anymore. We are a captive consumer now.
Except for Target. They FAFO.