Ben & Jerry’s Sues Parent Company

Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that parent company Unilever have silenced its four attempts to express support for Palestinians in Gaza.

 

The lawsuit is the latest sign of the long-simmering tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and consumer products maker Unilever. 

 

A rift erupted between the two in 2021 after Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop selling its products in West Bank settlements because it was inconsistent with its values, a move that led some investors to divest Unilever shares. 

 

The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its business in Israel to its licensee there, which allowed marketing in the West Bank and Israel to continue. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.

 

In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry’s says that Unilever breached the terms of the 2022 settlement, which has remained confidential. As part of the agreement, however, Unilever are required to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s independent board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s social mission”, according to the lawsuit. 

 

Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

More good news for China's COMAC.

 

Chinese regional operator Colorful Guizhou Airlines have placed firm orders for 20 C909 regional jets, becoming the type’s newest operator. The deal, disclosed at the 2024 Airshow China in Zhuhai, also comprises options for another 10 C909s (formerly known as the ARJ21).

 

Comac did not disclose a delivery timeline or financial terms of the deal.

Unilever Come Under Fire

UK multinational consumer goods giant, Unilever are said to be really “obsessed with publicly displaying sustainability credentials”. 

Sure, they possess a laudable ambition. After all, you can expect to earn more money and boost your bottom line when you make your business more sustainable. Reduced business costs, more innovative strategies, an improved reputation, and more new customers who value sustainability all work to increase the amount of money sustainable businesses earn. 

But that is only one part of the business equation. 

Like all business entities, other factors will be scrutinized – whether it is profitability, earnings growth, market share, liquidity, value creation and the other performance indicators that business practitioners are familiar with. 

Unilever’s issue is their lacklustre performance which has become a tad too obvious – it appears they haven’t done well enough in squeezing growth out of their existing $120 billion collection of brands! 

On Tuesday, the maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream revealed their intention to cull 15% of their senior managerial positions to speed decision-making and boost performance. 

Alan Jope (right) is making his biggest job cuts since becoming chief executive officer three years ago, eliminating about 1,500 positions as Unilever also reduce junior-management staff by 5%. 

And a major revamp of the consumer goods company is also underway. 

Their beauty and personal-care arm, which have been growing at the slowest pace of Unilever’s three major divisions, are being broken up into two under the new organization. 

They plan to separate their Foods and Refreshments business into two separate entities that will bring more transparency to the performance of their ice-cream operations, which includes brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike and Magnum. 

Additionally, Jope is seeking to reorganize the foods business around healthier habits, aiming to build a portfolio of plant-based meat and dairy alternative brands that will generate 1 billion euros worth of revenue by 2025. He has already expanded into the fast-growing vitamins, minerals and supplements space with the acquisition of Olly Nutrition in 2019. 

Of course, Jope is betting all of the above will produce the desired results. 

In any case, he knows only too well that he is at a critical juncture, coming under increasing pressure to chart a new course as the company’s share price lags rivals. Equally important, there is an urgent need to ease shareholders' concerns after a failed takeover bid. 

Unilever, whose shares have fallen about 13% over the past year, last week effectively abandoned plans to buy GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health care business for $67 billion. 

Their proposal, rejected by GSK, was widely criticized by investors as being a costly and risky distraction from dealing with pressing challenges to the business, such as surging inflation in emerging markets and weakness in healthy foods. 

The prevailing sentiment is that the purpose of all this strategic rethink and organizational overhaul is very clear: damage limitation. 

Still, no matter the direction that Unilever take, one thing stays concretised: The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. They will continue to advocate and promote the sustainability ethos of their brands. 

But what is it about a Unilever product that makes it so sustainable? Can a consumer goods giant which are active in 190 countries, have a portfolio of more than 400+ brands and annual sales worth $57.942 billion in 2020, really save the planet – and sell more products at the same time? 

It cannot be denied that Unilever’s sustainability strategy has been widely applauded. Admittedly, they do put more effort into saving the planet than many other companies – but don’t be so easily fooled by their rhetoric. 

They score well because they alone determine what constitutes ‘sustainability’! If you delve deeper into their practices, you’ll soon realize that the sustainability thingy is merely a business tool to boost their image, save money and create marketing opportunities. 

In fact, according to Ethical Consumer, their research highlights ethical issues concerning Unilever – and these include environmental reporting, habitats and resources, palm oil, pollution and toxics, human rights, workers' rights, supply chain management, irresponsible marketing, animal rights, animal testing, factory farming, anti-social finance, controversial technologies and political activities (Webpage https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/unilever). 

On top of that, there are naysayers who are kicking up a fuss that Unilever focus too much on environmental and social strategies and not enough on their core businesses.

At the end of the day, unless Unilever’s performance indicators can show an upward trend, the game-changing USLP won’t mean much at all to their investors and/or other stakeholders.

87 Million Cases and the Despairing Mermaid

As of today at 00:00 GMT, the world has reported more than 87 million Covid-19 cases and approaching 2 million deaths. 

A picture of a mermaid being surrounded by trash in Bali's Kuta Beach in Indonesia has gone viral.

The woman in a mermaid costume is actually Laura (left), whose Instagram name is Laura in Water Land. She's a 35-year-old ocean advocate based in Belgium and has been utilizing the power of social media to raise awareness about environmental and sustainability issues. 

In an interview with Coconuts, Laura said that the idea behind the visual was to get people’s attention to the issue of plastic waste and consumption using her mermaid stunt. 

Describing her feeling as paralyzed upon seeing the plastic waste strewn all over Kuta Beach two days ago – she said she was overwhelmed with despair over an issue that couldn’t be solved by an individual. 

Still, there are people who cared, whether local officials, residents and/or volunteers and they came out in force to clean up the beach. Truly, the community has risen up to the challenge to protect our much-abused planet. 

She had taken to Instagram to pen down her feelings saying that the plastic tide will keep on happening until polluters STOP MANUFACTURING and selling things we use for minutes that pollute the ocean and environment for centuries. 

It shouldn’t be up to communities to clean up this trash… and she identified the corporations responsible: @cocacola, @lifeatdanone, @lemineraleid, @nestle, @pepsico, @unilever, @minumvit, @mondelez_international. And others too, for sure. 

Therefore, corporations must STEP UP! Indeed, the world wants them to put the environment before greed. As she says, clean ups and recycling are not the long term solution. 

Stop making thrash and there won’t be thrash.

Facebook's Advertiser Revolt

Pigheadedness best describes Mark Zuckerberg. Perhaps, that's because the Facebook CEO has always been too full of himself. 

Worse, he has shown to be ever so willing to drop on his knees in order to kiss the ass of the President of the United States of America. 

He had regularly refused to flag false and incendiary statements from Donald Trump. 

Even when his own employees staged a 'virtual' walkout and called on the company to do more to address hate speech and incitement to violence – not just from Trump but also hate groups – he had stood his ground. 

As recently as last week, he even stoutly defended Trump’s posts as being “legitimate”. 

Advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and Color Of Change started “Stop Hate for Profit” on Wednesday to pile pressure on Zuckerberg's money spinning machine – and asking advertisers to pause all spending with Facebook for the month of July. 

Arc'teryx, Ben & Jerry’s, Eileen Fisher, Magnolia Pictures, Patagonia, REI, The North Face, Upwork and Verizon are amongst companies that gave their support and snubbed the tech company. 

On Thursday, the boycott grew beyond advertisers. Chat app Viber, which allows 100 million of its billion-plus users around the world to log in with their Facebook accounts, announced plans to cut ties with the social network entirely, removing all Facebook code from their service. 

Joy Howard, chief marketing officer of the password manager Dashlane, another participant in the boycott, said: “Facebook is not committed to change. They will only say what money makes them say. It’s time for us to put our money where their mouth is”. 

[Note: Facebook make $70.7 billion in annual advertising revenue]. 

As pressure piles on the social media site, Zuckerberg announced tweaks to a number of policies on Friday – hours after Unilever said they too would pull their advertisements from the social media platform for the next six months (BUT only in the US). 

That announcement was too little too late. It did not halt companies’ demands for change. On that same day, Coca-Cola, Hershey's, Honda, JanSport, Levi Strauss, Lululemon and Starbucks joined the more than 100 brands boycotting advertising on Facebook.

James Quincey, chairperson and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company said: “There is no place for racism in the world and there is no place for racism on social media” – and that social media companies need to provide “greater accountability and transparency”. 

In fact, Zuckerberg’s purported changes don’t go nearly far enough. 

More pressure must come to bear on Facebook to cease and desist “amplifying the messages of white supremacists” and “permitting incitement to violence”. 

And it's about time that Zuckerberg calls Trump out because he is a racist and a fascist, period.

Beauty Products That Embrace Racism

I think it’s right that Johnson & Johnson have arrived at a decision to stop selling skin-whitening creams popular in Asia. 

Their products have come under renewed social pressure in recent weeks amid an increasing strident global debate about racial inequality. 

Already, they are discontinuing their Neutrogena Fine Fairness line. And a company spokesperson told Reuters on Friday they will cease selling their Clean & Clear Fairness products in India too. 

The healthcare company said they would no longer produce or ship the products, but that they might still appear on store shelves until stocks run out. 

India is said to be one of the fastest growing markets for skin-whitening soaps and cream. The "fairness" (an euphemism for "whiteness" really) market generates sales of $432 million and it is growing annually by 17 percent. 

And Unilever's Fair and Lovely skin whitening cream has the largest share of the cosmetic market in India. Their commercials carry a makeover narrative that depicts dark-skinned women transforming into light-skinned women will indeed spawn success in romance and careers.

The skin-whitening market that includes Garnier's White Complete, L'Oréal's White Perfect, and Ponds' White Beauty recruit light-skinned Bollywood superstars – the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, and Hrithik Roshan – to sell fantasies of epidermal transformation as the basis for a happy and rewarding life. 

All the world’s biggest personal care companies, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble and L’Oreal under their respective brands Fair & Lovely, Olay and Garnier are hawking lotions that promise to lighten (or brighten) skin. 

According to Quartz, this is a $10-billion-dollar global skin-lightening market that aggressively peddles dozens of high- and low-end skin-lightening products to consumers in Asia and Africa. 

Whether we care to admit it or not, these products only serve to reinforce the flighty notion that fair skin is the beauty standard. A perfect life from perfect skin – but only for those of the ‘right’ (read, ‘fair’) shade – is the message and mindset that’s being communicated to the world. 

This has created a multibillion-dollar industry in cosmetic creams and invasive procedures such as skin bleaching, chemical peels, laser treatments, steroid cocktails, “whitening” pills and intravenous injections – all with varying effectiveness and health risks. 

It’s more than a bias, it’s a downright dangerous cultural obsession. 

Sunil Bhatia (right), a professor of human development at Connecticut College, USA, in his piece about deep-rooted internalised racism and social hierarchies based on skin color published on April 17, 2017 in US News & World Report said emphatically: “This is not bias. This is racism”. 

This darker skin stigma, and rigid cultural perception that correlates lighter skin tone with beauty and “personal success” is wrong! 

And I blame it on the Western media's dominance across the world where they preach "whiteness" as an idealized image and which has become transnational. 

The fact that the non-white population embraces it so readily is really sad and hard to swallow because it means they are ever willing to surrender their self-respect and dignity as persons of “color”.

Parody Rap Against Unilever

One way to protest irresponsible environmental practices is by using the medium of rap music.

 

In India, corporate giant Hindustan Unilever found themselves pitted against an unlikely opponent last week: a YouTube video titled Kodaikanal Won't, modelled on Nicki Minaj's hit song Anaconda.

 

The video called out the company for allegedly dumping toxic mercury in the soil and the water in Kodaikanal, a city in southern India in 2001. Fourteen years later, Unilever have still done nothing to clean up the contamination and compensate their workers and families. But forty-five people have died and more than five hundred people were adversely affected.

 

The song was written and performed by Chennai-born rapper Sofia Ashraf and set to Nicki Minaj's “Anaconda”. 

The video attracted over two million views and the protest rap caught the attention of both local and international media – more so, when Minaj responded on Twitter with a “shout out”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33815254

 

The company shouldn’t pretend the issue didn’t exist – regretfully, they came out with a lame statement saying that safety is their "number one priority". They even claimed that studies showed there had been "no adverse impact" on Kodaikanal's environment, except in some of the factory premises.

 

Unilever are in denial. They talk big about corporate social responsibility but you and I know that this is nothing but a big lie!

 

I should do my part even if I am in Malaysia. Boycott Unilever products – until they (1) express remorse and (2) take remedial action!

 

Image credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9821936/Unilever-warns-of-challenging-decade-in-Europe.html

 

On Monday, I was at the Sime Darby Healthcare Toastmasters meeting. Sure, there were only eight of us but we still had a decent meeting. And I delivered CC #9 – my first speech in nearly two weeks! I would score this meeting a 5.5 over 10.

 

 

SNHU Divorces HELP

Photo illustration by 731; Campus: Courtesy SNHU

Bloomberg BusinessWeek carried this interesting article about Southern New Hampshire University on May 09, 2013: Its quaint red-brick New England campus is home to 2,750 undergraduates, making it the size of some high schools. A casual visitor would never suspect that another 25,000 students are also enrolled online. That’s roughly how many are in the bachelor’s program at the University of California at Berkeley. 

Harvard, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have gained attention with their MOOCs, or massive open online courses, which are free and feature famed professors. Critics of these programs say that with no business model, they’re little more than a branding exercise. 

Southern New Hampshire’s College of Online and Continuing Education is no vanity project. The school’s management forecasts that revenue will reach $200 million in the next academic year – four times what it took in for 2010-11 – making it one of the biggest and fastest-growing online operations at any not-for-profit college in the U.S. 

“They are one of the most important players in the online space,” says Robert Lytle, co-head of the education practice at Parthenon Group, a Boston-based management consulting firm. “They’ve painted a pathway for other schools.” 

I know SNHU well because I managed and taught on the HICT's 4+0 SNHU program in Malaysia in 2008-2010. But this is not the only reason why I am suddenly blogging about the “Little College That's a Giant Online”. 

[After all, SNHU has been present in Malaysia for a long time. They came to this country by working with Rima College and offering the 2+2 twinning program. They soon parted ways and SNHU then tied the knot with Sepang Institute of Technology in Klang. Later, they introduced the 4+0 franchised American Degree Program and provided opportunities for Malaysians to complete the whole degree here (rather than studying two years in this country before transferring to the US of A for the remaining two years). SIT soon transformed into HELP International College of Technology (HICT) and it again mutated into HELP CAT (HELP College of Arts and Technology), based at KL’s Fraser Business Park, i.e. Kompleks Metro Pudu]. 

And now SNHU is divorcing HELP CAT. There will be a cessation of enrollments with “teach-out” for current students until they have graduated. The word on the ground is that the break-up is due to the issue of the honorary doctorate degree that was awarded to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (Kindly read my post at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2013/10/kim-jong-un-gets-honorary-doctorate.html, dated October 25, 2013. You may also want to check out other related readings dated October 27 and November 15, 2013).

An unfortunate turn of events. 

 




Aahhh, I forgot to mention that, finally, I had a Magnum on November 21, 2013 – in Australia! There, the Unilever brand is Streets. That was my first consumption of a Unilever product since I ended my Unilever boycott on April 09, 2013!

Unilever Malaysia Gives Guest Lecture

Yesterday morning, Unilever Malaysia’s Marketing Director came to Sunway University as my guest to give a lecture in my MKT2024 Marketing Management class. 

It was about the Sunlight campaign in Indonesia and I am sure my students benefited. I did too. 

Herry Budiazhari certainly makes a good corporate lecturer. It is always refreshing to listen and learn from marketing practitioners rather than from academicians who teach from textbooks.

Two of the video clips that were screened as part of the lecture include:

Even Retired Generals are Battle-ready

Five retired generals who have joined Pakatan Rakyat are all ready to bring out their “firepower” to battle the BN government in the coming GE13. The five are former deputy army chief Lt-Gen (Rtd) Abdul Ghafir Abdul Hamid, former chief of logistics at headquarters air logistics Brig-Gen (Rtd) Abdul Hadi AlKhatab, former chief of staff logistics Navy fleet headquarters Rear-Admiral (Rtd) Imran Abdul Hamid, former director of the Army Corps of religion Brig-Gen (Rtd) Najmi Ahmad and chief of staff of army, Gen (Rtd) Md Hashim Hussein.

These retired generals, who feel the BN government has neglected the armed forces personnel, are hoping to bring about political change through the ballot box. They will be contesting in parliamentary seats and are keen to debunk the public perception that the armed forces have always been supporting the BN in past general elections.

Both Ghafir and Hashim are slated to contest in the Johore constituencies of Pasir Gudang and Johor Baru respectively. Imran and Hadi are likely to fight it out in the parliamentary seats of Lumut and Tanjung Malim in Perak, respectively while Najmi in Baling, Kedah

Ini kali lah! Storm the Bastille to bring down the BN regime!

 

Colleague Madeline Tan’s contact at Unilever paved the way for me to meet up with the company’s marketing people, including their Marketing Director, Herry Budiazhari. The SUBS Department of Business & Marketing is wanting industry collaboration and we are studying the possibility of integrating a Unilever Case Study into the syllabus of the course I am teaching this semester, i.e. Marketing Management. It was indeed a useful discussion.

Herry also took the opportunity to offer an apology on behalf of his company for the “discourtesy” (I am putting this very mildly) that I had endured since 7 years ago. With a simple handshake, my boycott of Unilever products ended.

Afterward, I went to MidValley Cititel to attend the MidValley Toastmasters meeting. Unlike the unhappy episode that I experienced at the last meeting, this time it saw a great attendance (42 people came!) and there were four prepared speeches – I was particularly impressed with the Ice Breaker speech by newbie Emily Teh – and the evaluations were all top-notch. It was really great to see MidValley Toastmasters Club back on its feet. A wee complaint – the meeting started 5 minutes late, but it still finished on time. Overall, I have enjoyed the meeting and my score is a 7 over 10.

Apple Says Sorry

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized to Chinese consumers after two weeks of being lambasted by state-run media and others for arrogance and poor customer service. It seems that the company’s offense was in its failure to replace the back covers of iPhones after repairing electronics inside. A simple thing really that shouldn’t have been allowed to smolder and then become a target of public anger.

Cook had explained: “In the process of studying the issues, we recognize that some people may have viewed our lack of communication as arrogant, or as a sign that we didn’t care about or value their feedback”.

But many companies are guilty of the same things that Cook mentioned above – not just Apple. My beef with Unilever could be traced as far back as seven years ago! But unlike the Apple case where it caught global attention and forced the company to act correctly, my case is very much about just this one individual (i.e. me). I am only one voice so my rant will have no effect whatsover on the behemoth that is Unilever. [Those keen to know about my grievance can read about it at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2008/10/walls-story.html].

The Apple apology was overdue but I suppose, it’s better late than never. In case, anyone in Apple thinks it is not a big deal – consider that China accounted for $22.8 billion in sales in fiscal 2012. Didn’t I say, business is business?

Bloomberg referred to the Apple apology as a rite of passage for foreign brands in China. This is to assume that Apple and other foreign brands are being picked on by Chinese authorities. This is simply not true. Consumer dissatisfaction was real and Bloomberg was being mischievous.

I was at Wisma WIM in TTDI’s Jalan Abang Haji Openg to attend the Metropolitan Bilingual Toastmasters meeting. I didn’t have any role but I did take part in Table Topics and won the Best Speaker ribbon. A good meeting and I would give it a score of a 6.5 out of a 10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

And finally after months of toying with Malaysians, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the dissolution of Parliament today, paving the way for GE13. Only official media were allowed to broadcast the announcement from within Najib’s office in Putrajaya.  

Najib made a faux pas in his dissolution speech which was telecast live nationwide. Many did not realize that Najib had said “Pada pagi ini, saya telah pun menghadap Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di-Pertuan Agong dan menyembah warkah kepada baginda memohon perkenaan supaya parlimen ke-12 dibubarkan pada hari ini Rabu, 3 April 2012”. [“I had an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and delivered the letter to dissolve the 12th Parliament (session) today, Wednesday, April 3, 2012”].

Going by Najib’s speech, Parliament was dissolved last year and not 2013!

Axe Commercial that is a Big Lie!

I blogged about an Axe commercial last month (i.e. September 06, 2012). Well, I found another Axe commercial which is well, fascinating!

Readers, be warned. I actually bought an Axe and it didn’t work!

The China Press today reported that about 20 percent of an estimated 15,000 present at a MCA dinner in Kulai, Johor last Saturday left during Chua Soi Lek’s speech. 

Naturally, MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai played down the reported exodus of attendees at this event, saying it wasn’t an indication of diminishing support.

Don’t be quick to jump to conclusions lah – they left in order not to suffer from indigestion. When stomachs are full, it is hard to listen attentively to speeches, especially the ones that go on and on like a broken record. 

Or maybe they need to go to the toilet and get rid of all that shit!

Axe Commercial Axed

A television commercial for Axe features the female character as a headless pair of breasts on legs! Designed to promote a men's hair product, the concept of the ad, set in an office, is based on the idea that men notice breasts first on a women, while women notice a man's hair before anything else.

In turn, the male character, who admires his amply-chested co-worker from afar, is a thick head of hair on legs.

The TV commercial, by agency BBH New York, is set to the Daniel Johnston track “True Love Will Find You In The End” and is concluded with the tagline: 'Hair. It's what girls see first.' But the ad, though intended to be humorous, has prompted a backlash from viewers, who consider it to be sexist. Office romance: The ad is set in a workplace and the two characters are depicted as co-workers At last! Finally the two characters' human versions are revealed when they lock eyes at a bus stop Finale: As the pair approaches one another, the tagline appears, reading: Hair. It's what girls see first This is not the first time an ad for Axe, which is owned by Unilever, has sparked controversy.

An ad in 2010 attracted anger after a man having a shower after a one-night-stand was seen using his Axe shower gel to 'scrub away the skank'.

And last year, an ad that showed angels falling from heaven because they were attracted to a man's deodorant was banned in the UK and South Africa after regulators ruled that it could offend Christians.

Thanks for reducing the two characters into mere objects. Unilever doesn’t seem to have class at all! Honestly, the commercial is crappy, crummy and cheesy even! Axe, what the hell were you thinking of? And to think the company really believed this ad was a good idea?

Viewing this commercial, I am glad that I have been boycotting Unilever products all these years! If you wish to know why, check out my story at this link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2008/10/walls-story.html.