Ben & Jerry came bearing both icy-cold pints and very good news during their Thursday-night stop at CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Though Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have been clashing as of late with parent company Unilever (and its newly spun-off ice-cream division, Magnum) over what they describe as efforts to soften their 47-year-old brand’s activist identity, the vibe on Late Show was purely chill, as Colbert and the Ben & Jerry’s founders reflected on and celebrated their “wonderful” 18-year partnership.
Jerry remembered regarding Colbert as a “quirky, anti-authoritarian sort of guy” when the they first met as guests on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. As the three men chatted on Thursday’s Late Show, they spooned pints of Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream—a Top 10 Ben & Jerry’s flavor (out of the current 80) that contains vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl and fudge-covered waffle pieces.
Proceeds from the celebrity flavor’s sales have supported Colbert’s charitable AmeriCone Dream Fund, and each year at Christmastime, Colbert invites his staff to choose the organizations that benefit.
With The Late Show ending in May, Colbert shared with Ben & Jerry that this December they “cleared out” the fund completely and donated to a total of 138 charities. He also reported that the AmeriCone Dream Fund over the years has donated a total of $7.4 million.
“The show may be ending,” Colbert then said, “but what’s going to happen to AmeriCone Dream?”
“The AmeriCone Dream will go on!” trumpeted Ben; added Jerry, “The Dream continues!”
Colbert thus closed out the show “by paraphrasing Ted Kennedy from his 1980 Democratic Convention speech: For me, this broadcast will come to an end. But for all those whose care have been our own, the work goes on, the hope still lives, and AmeriCone Dream shall never die.”
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Two Jews and a Catholic. What comes from this trio? Dreams! good old fashion dreams. Three good men with multitudinous good ideas. Let’s continue to make more and more.