There is a corner in Burlington, Vermont, where Ben Cohen opened his first ice cream shop in 1978. The space was a converted gas station. The flavours were unusual. The politics were louder than both.
Nearly fifty years later, Cohen is still on that corner — metaphorically, at least — fighting for the company that bears his name. Only now the fight has spilled onto Bloomberg's front page, and the opponent isn't a local competitor. It's the Amsterdam-based ice cream conglomerate that paid a premium to own Ben & Jerry's, and is now — according to Cohen — methodically dismantling the very thing it bought.
In an interview published today on Bloomberg's Zero podcast, Cohen accused Magnum Ice Cream of being "in the process of destroying" the brand he built. His charge is specific: Magnum has forbidden Ben & Jerry's from criticising President Trump. "Trumpism is essentially the biggest attack on the values of Ben & Jerry's since the company was founded," Cohen said, "and Magnum has said you cannot criticize Trump."
This isn't a celebrity spat or a PR flare-up. It is, arguably, the defining corporate values battle of 2026. And at the centre of it sits one of the most revealing case studies in modern business: what happens when a company's culture isn't just part of its brand — it is the brand — and the new owner decides that culture has become inconvenient.
