American companies are retreating from their stated values faster than at any time in a generation, and shareholders are beginning to fight back. Two weeks ago, BP shareholders confronted the board at the company’s annual meeting over its abandonment of climate commitments.
Target shares fell 17% and same-store sales plummeted after the company backed off its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments, while Costco shareholders rejected an anti-DEI proposal with 98% of the vote and saw the company’s sales continue to grow.
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Customers and investors are taking notice when companies abandon the very things that made them attractive to buy in the first place.
Now, ice cream is the latest victim of the corporate war on social responsibility. Separated from Unilever four months ago, the world’s newest and largest ice cream giant, Magnum Ice Cream Company, has promised shareholders to manage its portfolio of brands responsibly.
It’s not keeping that promise. Magnum owns well-known brands like Breyers, Klondike, Talenti and, especially, Ben & Jerry’s — which has been dominating headlines during Magnum’s first quarter as a public company.
Co-founder Jerry Greenfield resigned in protest after 47 years. The independent board and the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation sued Magnum in federal court, alleging breach of contract, while the former board chair filed her own defamation lawsuit in California.
In April, co-founder Ben Cohen turned a four-decade tradition into “Free The Cone Day,” called on Magnum to sell the company and encouraged consumers to rethink buying Magnum ice cream until that happens.
The board has yet to come up with a convincing answer to the simplest question its investors can ask: What is the plan?
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What Ben & Jerry’s Really Built
Before talking about the Magnum problem, it is worth defining precisely what is being destroyed. Two friends, US$12,000, an adapted gas station in Vermont (USA), in 1978, and the bet that a company could make great products and, at the same time, defend a cause. They didn’t just create a brand. They inspired a generation of founders to prove that purpose and profit can go together.
The experiment worked. Ben & Jerry’s helped restore voting rights to more than 1.5 million disenfranchised people in Florida. Improved conditions for more than 200 farmworkers in the Northeast United States. Successfully advocated for laws that reduced child poverty, including programs such as Head Start and CHIP.
Through the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, the company has invested more than $70 million in local organizations, housing, immigrant rights and democracy groups across the country. It’s not just about good intentions. This is a history of measurable impact built by a company that treated social justice as a central business function, and not as a side project.
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This model is now being dismantled. Magnum and Unilever executives removed members of the independent board created to protect the brand’s social mission, blocked resources from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation and silenced the company’s voice on the very issues it was created to address — from Palestine to indigenous rights and racial justice — when taking a stance became inconvenient. A brand that millions of Americans grew up trusting is being hollowed out from within.
The business case they’re ignoring
Executives at Magnum and Unilever may believe that taking away Ben & Jerry’s mission is a wise business decision. The evidence suggests otherwise.
A 2023 study by Jump Associates concluded that, over 20 years, purpose-driven companies delivered market returns that exceeded those of competitors and up to five times those of the S&P 500 index. Ben & Jerry’s is one of the clearest examples of this trend.
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Our companies followed similar trajectories — and show that it is possible to prosper by doing good. Dr. Bronner’s (from organic soaps) grew from $4 million in revenue in 1998 to $250 million in 2025, spending very little on traditional advertising because the mission was marketing itself.
Patagonia sales (American outdoor clothing brand) have more than quadrupled over the past 20 years — from $240 million to nearly $1.5 billion — while the company has committed more than $240 million to environmental nonprofits through its commitment to the 1% for the Planet movement.
Holdfast Collective, the nonprofit that owns Patagonia, has distributed more than $210 million since 2022 to combat the climate crisis.
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What started as an image crisis is turning into a business problem. David Stever, a 35-year Ben & Jerry’s veteran ousted as CEO by Unilever last year, has just been named CEO of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, a rival premium brand certified as a B Corporation (with socio-environmental impact seal).
More than 130,000 people signed a petition asking Magnum to sell the company to investors aligned with the brand’s values. Magnum shares are down about 25% since their February peak and have become a popular short bet among European traders.
These are the consequences of Unilever and Magnum deciding that the voice and soul of an American brand beloved by the public is disposable.
What should shareholders do now
Companies and shareholders have a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that, for the first time in its 26-year history, companies are seen as more ethical than governments, the press and NGOs. Founders and CEOs today have more credibility than the institutions around them. The question is what they will do with it.
Every business leader now faces a straightforward question: Do we need more predatory capitalism or less? Some executives have spent decades fighting the idea that companies should care about workers, communities and the environment.
Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and Dr. Bronner’s have spent decades doing the opposite — proving that it’s possible to do business another way. Capitalism doesn’t just have to be rich getting richer. Business works best when it puts people, planet and purpose first.
The world wants more companies like Ben & Jerry’s. Magnum should leave them free to do what they do best.
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