Talk:Ben & Jerry's
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[edit] Article title
Wouldn't it be more logical for this article to be located at Ben & Jerry's, since that is the brand name? --taestell 20:28, July 20, 2005 (UTC)
- Yes. --Holdek (talk) 21:54, July 20, 2005 (UTC)
Why the specific mention of lifeworks, but no general mention of partnershops? Lifeworks may or may not be the newest, but there are quite a few. I think the original is in NYC... --69.201.143.180 05:27, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
Why isn't there any mention of Jamal and the police boycott's of Ben and Jerry's products? Also, it should mention Ben Cohen's view on the Iraq war, and themarines that are also boycotting the products.
Why isn't there a section about the dioxin controversy like here? They came out against dioxin and companies that had it present in their food, only to later realize that as a dairy product their products had over 200x the "safe amount".
It should also be mentioned that two characters in "Cityslickers" were based directly off of Ben and Jerry of Ben and Jerry's.
Why are they described as "dedicated hippies" when dedicated hippies would never sell out to a huge multinational like Unilever? 213.107.46.70 07:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
I've taken the dedicated hippies part off. 213.107.46.70 13:11, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] "Ben and Jerry's is famous for its leftist slant."
This is pure hyperbole. B&J is famous for its premium ice cream, not its "leftist slant." Cedlaod 23:23, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
- Sure they are. The company's founders have always been left-leaning activists... just visit the web site if you need proof:
- You'll find links to everything from 50 Ways To Support Peace to Environmental Action included on this link. These are traditionally causes supported by the left. Of course, I wonder what the liberals would say about Ben and Jerry selling out to a huge multinational corporation like Unilever... --M.Neko 18:41, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
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- Just because they are leftist doesn't mean they are famous for it. It should be included that they are leftists but "famous" shouldn't be used as it makes it sound like that's the only reason people know about Ben & Jerry's.
Ben and Jerry are famous as individuals for their attempts to stir social activism into the ice cream. This is not leftist, just their take on the world which is perfectly OK for them to have and for Wikipedia to discuss. Among other experiments, B&J Inc was a one of several companies of the era that tried to narrow the salary spread from highest to lowest (at one time, I believe, the ratio was fixed at <6:1) but this company rule was abandoned when the ice cream became popular and senior managers started to get higher salaries. (It would not be possible to pass the cost of million-dollar a year forklift drivers on to the consumer, nor would it be possible to keep good management staff at 6 times an average forklift driver's salary.) The abandonment of the salary rule is a legitimate topic of Wikipedia discussion too and need not be called leftist or rightist or purple. The personal opinions of people being profiled, as publically expressed (there are loads of positive and negative refs to B&J corporate social policies and changes) are not only allowed, but should be welcomed! Parsnip13 12:00, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Summer Rose Hutter
I removed this sentence from the opening paragraph: "In their will they left Ben and Jerry's to Summer Rose Hutter who at the time was only 1 years old, so when she is eighteen she will inherit it."
Not only does thise sentence seem to imply that ben and jerry are dead but raises more questions, Who is Summer Rose Hutter? why did they leave thier busniess to here? when did this happen?
fell free to reinsert this piece of information of course adding some detail so it make sense. Kejoxen 22:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
- They sold the business to Unilever in 2000. No way it's going to this Summer Rose Hutter person, whoever she is. --M.Neko 18:43, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Stephen Colbert gets a flavor named after him
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/ap_en_tv/people_stephen_colbert
This should probably be added. I was going to add it, but the current paragraph says "musicians", and I don't feel like starting a new paragraph for it since I'm silly. BrainRotMenacer 03:01, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] bobby seale controversy
i'm having a hard time finding any material describing bobby seale's relationship with the company as "controversial" - this needs to be cited
[edit] Proposal to merge with Ben & Jerry's flavors
I strongly disagree. The flavors list was previously in the main article and moved out as its size was overpowering. It will always suffer from high volume, unsourced edits which only detract from the importance of the main article. Please leave it as it is (ie. separate). —Moondyne 05:03, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
- It's also a very obvious list, not an article. I moved it to List of Ben & Jerry's flavors.
- Peter Isotalo 20:53, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
- Seems kind of silly to me to move it to List of Ben & Jerry's flavors, being that everything is under the article tab anyway, but whatever. --Chunk Champion 17:22, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
- Is there a consensus on this merge? If not, I will remove the merge tag within the week as it is over a month old now.--Christopher Tanner, CCC 14:18, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Huge Parts Still To Be Written
Why has the ice cream been so popular? Because it’s chunky! I remember reading that Ben Cohen does not have much of a sense of taste, so he primarily relies on mouth texture in judging a favor. That makes sense, but I’d like to have this confirmed with a source we can include as a footnote.
At the beginning of our “Talk” section, we have a comment about the former 10 to 1 policy. I remember it as a 7 to 1 policy. The highest paid employer could not be paid more than 7 times the lowest paid employee. But the company discontinued this some years before they sold to Unilever (it was felt that discontinuing the policy was necessary in order to get a wider pool of CEO candidates).
Then there’s the whole issue of a socially responsible business. If you talk about socially responsible businesses, Ben & Jerry’s is the number one example. And the deal where, for a particular flavor of ice cream, a certain percentage of profit goes to a particular and related good cause, people just love that. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and Ben Cohen is very much a human being. Google “Ben Jerry's swinegate” (ice cream runoff feed to pigs caused symptoms suspiciously similar to arteriosclerosis, and Ben was not initially forthcoming about this). And then there’s the far more serious issue with Rainforest Crunch, “The anticipated source for the nuts-the Xapuri cooperative of white, former Portuguese rubber tappers-never produced the necessary quality or quantity. To meet exploding demand, Ben & Jerry's turned to the commercial markets supplied by some of the most notorious, anti-labor agribusinesses in Latin American, including the Mutran family, convicted of killing labor organizers” [1] . Wow, that’s some pretty serious stuff. I hope it’s not true, but I can all too easily see it being true. The suppliers get labeled as merely “conventional,” that creates a moral distance with what’s really going on. And, for whatever reason, the people making these decisions don’t want to get into the details, don’t want to have the awkward task of trying to make distinctions between bad and worse.
(To their credit, some of this situation was discussed in Ben & Jerry’s 1995 Annual Report.)
The way a socially responsible business is supposed to work is that you pay a little bit more for the confidence that things are being done right, and consumers in turn are paying a little bit more to support this. But you may not be able to immediately go into a culture you’re unfamiliar with and start doing good things. You may need to start much slower. So, the bottom line, you may not get that many nuts for the popular ice cream if it truly is sustainable harvest and if the workers and communities truly are being treated as partners. Rainforest Crunch may be only occasionally available. That may be one of the compromises you need to make. It can’t be the standard corporate thing of trying to maximize profit.
And for the rest of us, maybe a hierarchical organization where we so count on one individual (Ben), and then are disappointed, maybe that’s not the way to go. Maybe a moderate dose of de-centralizing and a goodly dose of transparency would much better serve us.
Let’s include this in our article, with as many details as we can and as many references as with can. Let’s lay it on the table! Help if you can. FriendlyRiverOtter 05:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] updated the info about Ben & jerry's CEO
His name is Walt Freese, but somebody didn;t believe that so here is the source http://www.benjerry.com/our_company/press_center/press/WaltFreeseAnnouncement.html Mtl1969 15:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
Something should be added about Ben and Jerry's former policy of the highest payed employie making no more than 10 times that of the lowest payed one. How about the label over the spsific type of milk they do not use?
[edit] Another Reference
In the show "Ham on the Street" where they try new methods of making ice cream, George anounces that the judges will be Ben and Jerry, but when they show the judges George says due to budget issues we had to get a phone book and find a guy named Ben and a guy named Jerry. --24.123.188.12 18:07, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Trivia section
As wikipedia is trying to get rid of trivia sections, I have tried to make separate headings which made sense for topics in the section. If it doesn't seem to work please feel free to change, but I think it is a good path.--Christopher Tanner, CCC 05:05, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Ben and jerry logo.gif
Image:Ben and jerry logo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 02:01, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Photo of Cherry Garcia<--Is it chunkier down below the top?
I’m glad we’ve included the photo. This helps to show what it’s all about. I also like the photo of the scoop shop in Singapore, which I did not know was there, but which does not entirely surprise me.
Big chunks in the ice cream, as I understand it, that is their claim to fame and fortune. They may have been the very first company that did this who achieved any kind of large-scale or even regional distribution within the United States. But, if not the very first, they were the first ones who really, really caught on. So, are there in fact bigger chunks in the Cherry Garcia besides what’s shown on the smooth top? Or how about the “Chunky Monkey,” with fudge and walnuts. Or Rainforest Crunch? Or their cookie dough ice cream, which as I remember it, is not just smooth flavor, it’s little round frozen balls of cookie dough. (Yeah, I have had their ice cream, but it has been a little while. These days, I’m trying to lose some weight. And the key number on the package, well, it’s not the number of calories, and it’s not the number of grams of saturated fat, it is the number 4, as in 4 servings per pint!) FriendlyRiverOtter 20:04, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Flavour
There was a section called Flavour, with a link that also had flavour in it, I'm aware this is the British way to spell it, but on Wikipedia, its spelled Flavor, so I changed it, and now the link works, just thought I should share that C. Pineda 00:30, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] last section needs cleanup, not deletion
Inclusion of the last section, in terms of cultural references in media, I feel is appropriate and within Wikipedia guidelines. The way it is presented however definitely lacks the formatting and clarity standards of Wikipedia articles.
Also, a large part of the brands success has been its relevance as a cultural icon and not just an ice cream brand. As such, the omission of information regarding cultural and media references would only make the article less informative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Darqcyde (talk • contribs) 23:36, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
