The latest from Ben Cohen in which “100% of royalties after expenses are used to help right the wrongs of the war on drugs.”
Have you ever seen a celebrity doing a commercial and been like, What the fuck do they need the money for? They must have screwed up on their taxes!
Or have you heard a famous person talking about some social cause or another and been like, Wow, they have no clue what the hell they’re talking about.
Even worse, some of them are scammers—like companies that use phrases like “conscious capitalism” but dump on people and the planet just like all the monsters who pilfered and polluted before them.
Though Ben and Jerry’s often gets lumped in with that group, and is indeed owned by the multinational behemoth Unilever (which it operates independently from), the Vermont-based ice cream company really has set itself apart from most others, politically as well as culturally. From supporting community and small business initiatives since before that was really a thing to sticking their necks out on issues that 99% of business owners, particularly of their stature, wouldn’t touch with a flagpole, founders Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen walk the walk.
Cohen’s latest project, the “social benefit” cannabis brand Ben’s Best Blnz, or B3, is especially ambitious. For one, the company “is registered with the State of Vermont as a non profit organization,” and “partner[s] with independent for profit businesses who pay us a royalty in exchange for the use of our formulas, packaging, and trademarks.” For his contributions, Cohen takes nothing.
Meanwhile, “100% of those royalties after expenses are used to help right the wrongs of the war on drugs.” That includes 10% to the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and another 10% to the Last Prisoner Project, but also 80% “to grants to Black cannabis entrepreneurs” via “a low interest loan fund … administered in partnership with NuLeaf Project, a Black led non profit organization.” We can only assume that if B3 is later introduced in markets outside of Vermont, they’ll partner with local entrepreneurs and orgs in those places too.
But wait, there’s more! The B3 team also tapped a badass board that includes Killer Mike and Nina Turner, and used vendors that are local Vermont Benefit Corporations that are “required to provide a material positive impact on society and the environment taken as a whole, from the business and operations.”
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the project is the overall design for B3, which “was created by a team led by Eddie Opara, a partner at Pentagram Design.” They explain, “the visual language of the Ben’s Best identity is driven by expressive typography, rooted in historical context and accompanied by an array of contemporary colors. The products are adorned in a medley of the words of black leaders, the work of contemporary black artists and typographers, and calls to action to decarcerate and deschedule cannabis.”
Furthermore, for the typography, B3 tapped Tré Seals and Vocal Type Foundry, whose each “typeface highlights a piece of history from a specific underrepresented race, ethnicity, or gender—from the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Argentina to the Civil Rights Movement in America.”
And there’s a concept behind the cannabis itself too—low THC, for all those people who complain that weed has gotten too strong. Though not all their products will be on the weak side of the spectrum.
Take a spin around the B3 site and check it out for yourself. It’s just about the farthest thing from performative celebrity prerolls for PETA imaginable.
