While hundreds of people on Tuesday lined up for Free Cone Day at the Ben & Jerry’s on Burlington’s Church Street, a very different scene was playing out just a few blocks away at the site of the ice cream company’s original scoop shop.
Cofounder Ben Cohen, who came up with the concept of Free Cone Day in 1979 with cofounder Jerry Greenfield, stood by a pop-up tent at the corner of St. Paul and College streets, home now to a parking lot. Two people in costumes roamed the sidewalk: One, an angry-looking Magnum ice cream bar with teeth bared, the other, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. The competing event, dubbed “Free THE Cone Day,” was to raise awareness of Cohen’s campaign to wrest control of his company from the brand that owns it, Magnum Ice Cream Company, a spinoff of multinational corporation Unilever.
“The Free Ben & Jerry’s campaign is about supporting Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen said. “We just want Ben & Jerry’s to stay Ben & Jerry’s, to not get ‘Magnum-ized.’”
Cohen and Greenfield sold Ben & Jerry’s to Unilever in 2000. The deal allowed the ice cream company to keep an independent board and continue the activism for which it was known. But the dynamic has changed in recent years, with Cohen and the board alleging that Magnum, the new parent company, has repeatedly breached the sale terms. That’s sparked his campaign to buy back Ben & Jerry’s — something that Magnum isn’t willing to entertain. Seven Days detailed the conflict in a cover story last month.
“Magnum is in the process of transforming Ben & Jerry’s into another company like their other 99 brands,” Cohen said. “Heartless, soulless, has no social mission.”
Tuesday’s event was a reunion of sorts. A musician named Don Rose played tunes on the piano — just like he did decades ago at the original scoop shop. Cohen greeted old pal Paul Stephens, who joined the company as one of its first employees in 1981. Stephens lived on Main Street and played basketball with Greenfield at Smalley Park. Before joining the company, Stephens worked on St. Paul Street and would stop at Ben & Jerry’s on his way in.
“By the time I walked into Kerry’s Kwik Stop, I was just finishing my small chocolate ice cream cone,” Stephens recalled with a laugh.
Cohen and a group of volunteers handed out flyers and stickers and sold shirts that read, “Yo Magnum, Free Ben & Jerry’s.” The hope was people would bring those items over to Church Street and spread the message to the crowd waiting in line for a free cone.
“If you do stand up, make your voice heard, we will free Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen said. “The reality is that the only people that can save Ben & Jerry’s is you, is us. Everyone of us. The power of the people is the most powerful thing that there is.”
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