Unilever Loses $2.5B Over Calls to Boycott Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever (UL) has lost $2.5 billion in market cap amid calls to boycott the ice cream maker for its anti-American July 4 message, the New York Post reports.

The stock of the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate fell to $51 after closing $52.28 Monday, just ahead of Ben & Jerry’s July 4 entreaty for the U.S. to return “stolen Indigenous land,” starting with Mount Rushmore.

“The faces on Mount Rushmore are the faces of men who actively worked to destroy Indigenous cultures and ways of life, to deny Indigenous people their basic rights,” Ben & Jerry’s said.

Unilever’s market capitalization has lost $2.5 billion, falling from $133.5 billion on Monday to $131 billion Wednesday.

“This 4^th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the U.S. exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it,” Ben & Jerry’s said in a tweet and on its website.

The Burlington, Vermont-based company also issued a press release asking for Americans to work together to return the land on which they have lived for the past 247 years.

While Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, it permitted its board to remain independent on political and social issues.

Twitter users immediately reacted to Ben & Jerry’s unpatriotic and untimely denunciation, comparing it to Bud Light’s transgender marketing fiasco and urging customers to boycott its goods.

“Make @benandjerrys Bud Light again,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Just when you think @benand jerrys couldn’t go any lower—they pull this stunt. Boycott Ben and Jerry’s,” wrote another.

A group called the Moral Rating Agency called out Unilever on Wednesday for continuing to sell its Cornetto ice cream and other products in Russia, whereas hundreds of Western companies immediately exited the nation in protest of its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The United States, Europe and Japan also imposed economic sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs.

Unilever has defended remaining in Russia, saying leaving is “not straightforward.”

The multinational firm argues that its 3,000 employees and brands that remain in Russia “would be appropriated—and then operated—by the Russian state.”

“We do not think it is right to abandon our people in Russia,” Unilever said in a statement.

Neither Unilever or Ben & Jerry’s responded to a request for comment from the Post.