Unilever brand Ben and Jerry’s will launch a campaign this Thursday in support of gay marriage encouraging voters to elect pro-gay-marriage candidates, regardless of their political party.

The as-yet unveiled Ben and Jerry’s campaign, which will be launched with major events in most capital cities and will help support marriage equality lobby group Australian Marriage Equality’s (AME) current “Vote4love” campaign.

Ben and Jerry’s brand manager Kalli Swaik said the company did not want to take away from the attention given to marriage equality’s campaign which was launched late last week but rather hope to support that campaign.

“We fully support our partner AME as we announced last week and we support their Vote4love campaign, but we also have our own campaign up our sleeves,” said Swaik.

The new campaign will follow other social initiatives such as the “Chunks4achange” , which in April saw a kombi-van tour of the eastern coast of Australia that featured Channel V host Danny Clayton giving away free ice-cream at local charities. Participating organisations included Guide Dogs Victoria, Mission Australia and Headspace.

Swaik said the new campaign will be similarly focused on getting people involved in the cause of equality around the world.

“Absolutely it will be similar, in that it’s all about inviting people to take a stand, and getting involved in making a change,” she said.

“We have taken a progressive stance around the world to support same-sex marriage for over two decades. We are an activist brand, and now is the time to speak out on this issue”.

The brand has previously supported marriage equality in the UK and the US, releasing ice-cream flavours like “Apple-ly ever-after” and “Hubby Hubby”, a take on their flavour “Chubby Hubby”.

The AME’s “Vote4love” website allows voters to search for their local candidates who support marriage equality.

The campaign is targeting electorates that have indicated stronger support for marriage equality than in other areas of the country.

Rodney Croome, the director of AME, said that he was approached by Ben and Jerry’s earlier in the year, and that the upcoming election signalled an obvious opportunity to collaborate.

“Ben and Jerry’s have a long history of supporting positive social and legal change, including marriage equality.

It was actually Ben and Jerry’s who approached us earlier this year to ask how they might be able to support the marriage equality campaign, and being an election year, discussions turned quickly to that.”

Croome said the AME’s association with Ben & Jerry’s would continue long after the election.

“Our commitment to the issue, and the fact that the issue is obviously not going away, regardless of who gets in power, is a good indicator that the collaboration will continue”.

Deputy director of AME, Ivan Hinton, said he was impressed with the media’s response to the campaign and that he knew of electoral candidates who were already being questioned over the issue.

“We already know people in certain electorates are using that information to approach people to change their position.”

Author: Courtney Robinson
Publication: mUmBRELLA
Date: 20 August 2013