Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, is campaigning to “Free Ben & Jerry’s” and urging a boycott of Magnum Ice Cream Company’s brands including Yasso, Breyers, Talenti and Klondike to pressure Magnum to sell the Ben & Jerry’s brand. Cohen says corporate ownership has silenced the company’s trademark activism and that an independent board that once safeguarded the brand’s voice and quality has been stripped of power. In November 2024 Ben & Jerry’s board sued parent company Unilever, alleging it was blocked from voicing support for Gaza; that lawsuit remains in federal court. Unilever spun its ice-cream holdings into the Magnum Ice Cream Company in September 2025, prompting Cohen’s campaign; he estimates Ben & Jerry’s could be worth $1 billion or more but says Magnum will not share valuation data. Cohen acknowledges he and co-founder Jerry Greenfield sold the company to Unilever for $326 million in 2000 and says he hopes consumers will “vote with their dollars” to force a sale so he or other investors can repurchase it. Industry experts warn boycotts rarely succeed because sustaining consumer attention is difficult, a view voiced by Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton School management professor. Cohen says he does not want the boycott but sees it as necessary to stop what he calls the “destruction” of the brand and to restore its independent ownership and activism.
