I'm a longtime fan of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, though my brief indulgences have become few and far between so I can maintain my girlish figure. I'm even more of a fan of theirs after seeing their newest flavor, though.
With its new flavor, Save Our Swirled, Ben & Jerry’s is urging fans to dig their spoons into climate change activism.
The flavor is a mix of raspberry ice cream, marshmallow and raspberry swirls, and dark and white fudge ice cream cones. But Save Our Swirled is also a flavor with a message: when you dig out a spoonful, the website says, “you can’t help but notice” that those cones appear to be melting. Abbreviated on pint lids as SOS, Save Our Swirled’s message is simple: If it’s melted, it’s ruined, whether it’s our ice cream or our world. The flavor launched earlier this week in the U.S., and will debut in European markets in the summer and move into Asian and Australian markets later in the year.
“The place where we interact with our consumers most is in the freezercase,” Chris Miller, Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission Activist, told ThinkProgress. While the flavor is a central element, it is part of a “larger, global campaign” against climate change, Miller said.
The flavor is just part of a larger strategy to push forward on action related to climate change.
In addition, on every pint of Save Our Swirled is the URL for www.benjerry.com/climate, where ice cream fans can learn about climate change and sign a petition hosted by Ben & Jerry’s partner, the global civic engagement website Avaaz.org, which calls for international leaders at the climate summit to work towards 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
Avaaz has a goal of delivering 3 million signatures by the summit, and so far has garnered about 2.36 million. However, that petition is only the first step, Miller said.
“It’s not just about signing that one petition. We hope that the petition is a gateway to the larger movement,” he said, adding that once fans sign the petition, they become part of Avaaz’s network for updates regarding this and other campaigns around climate change. Stopping climate change, said Miller, is going to require “everybody doing everything,” so the petition is merely “the first step on a ladder of increasing activism on this issue.”
To help accomplish that increase in activism, a portion of the proceeds of Save Our Swirled will be donated to an organization helping mobilize activism around the Paris talks.
Read the rest to see how they're dealing with their own carbon footprint and trying to responsibly raise awareness at the same time.
