The Intersection of Corporate Activism and Purpose-Driven Marketing
Join Molly Baker, Founder of Indie Consulting and Chris Miller, Global Social Mission Director at Ben & Jerry's as they dive into the intersection of corporate activism and purpose-driven marketing, exploring how brands can authentically support social causes. Chris shares insights on where companies often go wrong, how activism has evolved in the marketing world, and how cultural moments have shaped brand marketing work. He also offers advice for those looking to break into the CPG and activism space, blending personal reflections with professional expertise on using marketing to drive meaningful change.
Molly Baker [MB]: Talk about your profession without telling us who you are. What are you thinking about?
Chris Miller [CM]: It's a weird time to be doing the kind of work that I do, right? I have this unique role. I am using the tools and channels of a for-profit company to really do progressive issue advocacy. And this is all taking place at a time when there is a retreat at the corporate level away from corporate sustainability and there is this idea that purpose and wokeness have run amok.
I have a different point of view around these things, but it is an interesting time to be doing what I'm doing in the context of what's happening around us.
MB: What are you really good at?
CM: I've had this really unique career path where I've had the opportunity to work with some really smart visionary people. I've had the opportunity to spend about half my career in the non-profit space and half my career in the for-profit space. I think the work that I have helped lead.
My role sits at the nexus of communications and change making. I typically don't brag about myself, but I'm really proud of the work that myself and others have done over the last sort of decade or so. It's helped set a standard for how companies think about this issue of corporate citizenship.
MB: You mentioned corporate activism and how some may say that it's had its heyday and now those days are gone. What's your take on that?
CM: I completely disagree. If you look at what's driving the blowback and what's injecting this issue into the cultural and political climate, I think it's primarily driven by politics. There's a certain strain of the political right that uses this idea of 'woke corporations' and 'DEI run amok' to score political points.
But if you step back and look at what investors are doing, what consumers are looking for in the brands they care about, and what employees want from their employers, it all points to the same conclusion. Companies that engage in these areas will be the most relevant.
Meanwhile, companies that don’t—like a recent big retailer that shut down their entire sustainability and DEI team—won’t stay relevant. Politically, it feels like some businesses are keeping their heads down, but I think this is just a dip. It’s not the end of corporations being part of solving problems instead of creating them.
MB: Do you believe that the world is so political that corporations might as well have a voice in those political conversations?
CM: Yes, and I think both consumers and employees are expecting companies to have a voice on these issues. It’s become harder in this context, though, right? Look at the past year with Target and Bud Light. But I’m not sure the conclusions drawn from those examples are the right ones because we have a lot of data where I work that shows this is exactly what people want.
It's highly motivating for employees, and it benefits the brand. People want to feel a connection with the brands they have high affinity for, beyond just a product transaction.
We can talk more about Bud Light, but the conventional wisdom says they faced backlash for taking a stand on a controversial issue. I’d argue the opposite—they didn’t take a stand when pressure came. They threw what they claimed to care about overboard, didn’t stand by their decision, didn’t defend their partner, fired the marketing team, and said they made a mistake.
So the lesson isn’t that brands shouldn’t take stands—it’s that if you're going to take a stand, you have to stand by it. In the end, Bud Light got it from both sides, and that's never where you want to be.
MB: To do it well and right, you have to be intentional. And I don't think that today's brands are always intentional.
CM: I completely agree. I think the critique that brand purpose may have gone a bit too far is valid. Q-tips don’t need a purpose—they can just clean my ears, and that’s fine. My soup doesn’t need a purpose either. But the key to doing this authentically is rooting it in something honest and real.
If the focus is just on 'Who are my consumers? What’s a cause that resonates with them, and how do I serve that to them?' that’s inauthentic. It needs to be about what the company truly believes in—what the values are, what the employees believe, and what the founder or CEO stands for. That way, when there’s pushback, you can say, 'No, this is why we believe in these things.'
So, I do agree with the critique that not every brand or company needs a contrived purpose.
MB: Where do you see these types of initiatives intersecting with marketing today?
CM: It’s all about marketing, isn’t it? As someone who spent part of my career in the nonprofit sector, including at Greenpeace, I can say organizations like Greenpeace play an incredibly important role in society. But what I see as the opportunity in the kind of work I do now is bringing world-class marketing and communications talent to that larger movement.
At Greenpeace, we had many strengths—but honestly, we didn’t have top-tier marketing talent. Today, I work with incredible marketers who can convince people to buy things they don’t necessarily need. The big opportunity here is to harness that talent not just to sell products, but to sell ideas.
If you think about it, what makes the most effective politician? It’s communication—a way of connecting with people. And that’s what marketers at brands excel at. The trick is to harness that marketing talent in a way that’s real and authentic, not just focused on selling more stuff, but on achieving your goals.
The natural result of doing that authentically is building your brand. But if you’re doing it just to sell more over here, that’s a recipe for scoring an own goal.
MB: Do you consider yourself a marketer?
CM:No, but some of my best friends are marketers. I don’t think that’s my strong suit. I think I’m really good at what I do—I’ve spent much of my career in policy and advocacy. I’ve got a good head for policy, and I know who we should be working with and what we should be doing.
But I benefit greatly from working with my marketing colleagues.
MB: I’m curious if you, given your experiences, could put yourself in a marketing role and be successful?
CM: I see myself more in a corporate communications role. I think I’m more long-form than short-form. But it's really about bringing these two things together. To do this well, it can’t just be a marketing effort. If you look at companies that do this best—Patagonia, Lush Cosmetics, Seventh Generation, Ben & Jerry’s—they bring in people with backgrounds like mine: campaigning, advocacy, and policy.
If you leave it solely to the marketers, you risk it becoming contrived and inauthentic, which can be very risky. The companies that do this well are the ones that invest in doing it right. It doesn’t require a big team, but you do need someone with this kind of background to partner with marketing and make it authentic.
MB:Talk a little bit about the difference between Corporate activism and purpose driven marketing.
CM: Yeah, I think for us, there’s a big distinction between purpose-driven brand marketing or cause-related marketing and what we describe as corporate activism. I’m not going to place a value judgment on those who participate in cause-related marketing, but I think it starts with questions like, 'Who are my consumers? What’s an issue or value that resonates with them? And how do I build a campaign that emotionally connects with them to build brand equity and loyalty?' It’s essentially a play to build brand loyalty.
Our approach, while sometimes the creative execution may look similar, starts in a very different place. It doesn’t begin with 'Who’s my consumer?' or 'What issue or value do they care about?' Instead, it starts with 'What are our values? What do we believe in? What’s the change we’re trying to make?' Then, we create an emotionally compelling campaign that connects with our fan base, often giving them opportunities to take action and be a part of making change.
When we do this effectively, it absolutely builds brand loyalty. Our fans who resonate with our progressive mission are nearly three times more loyal than someone who just buys our product from a freezer case at Walmart. And it returns to the brand—you get a double benefit because you're not only building loyalty but also making a real impact on the world.
MB: So tell us who you are.
CM: I am Chris Miller. I am the Global Social Mission Director at Ben & Jerry's.
MB: What does an average day in your world look like?
CM: It's all over the place. It’s funny because we have a new member on the integrated marketing team. During the second meeting I had with her, with both integrated marketing and social mission team members, I realized we were discussing topics like the election, planning our get-out-the-vote work, the messaging we’re going to use, the key states we’ll be focusing on, and how we strategically target young, low-propensity voters.
I thought, 'This conversation isn’t happening in any other company’s conference room anywhere in the country.' It’s incredibly cool, unique, and must be interesting for this new marketer, who came from a shoe company, to sit in on what might sound like a political campaign meeting to anyone else.
On top of that, I now manage a global team. Half of my team works on more conventional corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts—things like our greenhouse gas emission reduction plan, dairy sustainability program, and packaging approach. The other half focuses on our unique corporate activism model at Ben & Jerry’s.
So, I have my foot in both the conventional sustainability world and what I think is more innovative corporate activism. It’s a global role, which is exciting, and now I’m on the company’s leadership team. So yeah, it’s never dull, and I like it because there’s always a lot going on.
MB: I was gonna say a mix of a lot of different things.
CM: Which I like. I think most people aren’t as fortunate as I feel I am. I get to bring my whole self to my job. I love where I work, I love the brand, and I love living in Vermont. But beyond just selling people sugar and fat—it's a great product—I feel like I'm also part of doing something good in the world.
I don’t want to judge, but I think a lot of people don’t get the same fulfillment I do. I’m lucky that my personal values align with the work I get to do every day.
MB: Have you ever eaten three pints in a day?
CM: Oh gosh, no. I've certainly taken three pints at home.
MB: Do people still stockpile them?
CM: So when I first started at Ben & Jerry’s, I’m sure it was the same for you. At first, you're like, 'Wow, three pints on day one!' You bring them home, then the next day, you bring three more. By the end of the week, you’re thinking, 'Damn, there’s no room left in my freezer!'
But you quickly become popular because you can always bring some to dinner parties, give it to your neighbors—everyone loves free Ben & Jerry’s.
MB: What would you say is the high and the low of your role today?
CM: I told this story at a company meeting right after I got this job. I started with Ben & Jerry’s in 1996, before the Unilever acquisition. I was there for six years, then left for twelve, and eventually came back. Back then, I had a very junior position, but the first social mission director, this incredible woman named Liz Bankowski, held the role.
I was 27, and I thought, 'This is the coolest job in the world—she’s amazing, and this is an incredible role.' So now, finding myself in this position, where so many accomplished people before me have done incredible work, is like a total high. I feel a huge responsibility not to screw it up and to keep pushing us to innovate and drive impact in both the business and the world.
The low part is more personal. In my previous role, where I ran activism globally, I was in the weeds every day, and now I spend much less time doing that. It’s been tough for me. My partner, Ashley, warned me during the process for this role, saying, 'Be careful what you wish for. Are you sure you're going to like this?' because she knows how much I enjoy being hands-on.
I'll admit, I still spend more time on that stuff than I probably should, but it's where my passion lies.
MB: What relationship has been most impactful on you? Professionally. Sounds like you've had an influence on a lot of really amazing people.
CM: It’s a difficult question to answer because I’ve been so fortunate to work with driven, motivated, and talented people. I didn’t plan my career arc. I knew what I wanted to do when I came out of college, and I did that after I graduated. But from there, much of it has been happenstance, and I’ve been really lucky.
If you were to ask me which relationship has had the most impact on my career, I’d probably say Ben and Jerry. I started working at the company in 1996 as their assistant, and I learned so much from them. They had phased out of their day-to-day roles at the company and were focusing on their issue advocacy work.
Before that, I worked for Bernie Sanders, and after I left his office, I went to support Ben with his advocacy campaigns, just as they were transitioning out of operations. Then the company was sold to Unilever, and through that whole merger and acquisition process, I was very close to Ben and Jerry and learned so much about their values.
Ben, in particular, is a brilliant marketer and is completely driven by his values. In many ways, what we try to recreate at the company, through multiple people and teams, is rooted in Ben’s vision. Now, in this role, having spent so much time learning from them and seeing their commitment to the company and what they hoped it would become, it’s incredibly helpful to me.
I feel we’re all super fortunate at Ben & Jerry’s to still have the co-founders around, involved, and in the office. We can ask them what they think about what we’re doing. The relationship I’ve had with them for 30 years is so important to me now. I feel a great sense of responsibility because I want them to be proud of the work we’re doing. I constantly think, 'What would Ben do?'
MB: How much time do you spend understanding what's happening in the world, especially in a global position? And what does that drive?
CM: I think all of us try to stay close to current events and culture. Personally, I probably focus more on politics, while I rely on my colleagues for cultural trends and communication tools. The key point is that our team works incredibly well together because it’s cross-functional.
Part of the magic of Ben & Jerry’s is that we’re not just one thing. We’re not just Chunky Monkey or criminal justice reform—we’re also Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Cherry Garcia, Fish Food, refugee rights, and so much more. That’s what makes the brand unique and approachable.
We have a sizable cross-functional team that works on our content model, holding monthly brainstorms to plan a steady flow of content across our key pillars—fun flavors and values. Everyone is involved in both. Having a diverse team with different perspectives ensures we stay close to trends, cultural and political moments, and can react to real-time events.
It’s a lot of planning, but it’s also about making sure that the people involved bring different viewpoints and are aligned with the brand’s foundation. Over the years, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever, we’ve benefited from a unique ebb and flow of employees. Some have been here a long time, embodying the brand and values, while others bring fresh ideas and perspectives.
As we demerge from Unilever, I hope we can retain that balance—keeping institutional knowledge while continuing to bring in new perspectives. That’s what keeps the brand dynamic.
MB: At 21, did you ever think you would be doing what you're doing today?
CM: No, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you had told me I’d spend almost 20 years at an ice cream company over two different stints, I would’ve said you were nuts. I’d be like, 'No way!'
MB: So Ben Jerry's is going to stay woke?
CM: No doubt about it. We're going to keep making the case for why others should embrace being 'woke.' This isn’t about virtue signaling or a marketing strategy—it’s about recognizing that the strongest bonds you can create with consumers are built around shared values. You have to root what you do in something real, and that’s the critical part.
You can’t ignore the 40-plus year history of this company, which has a reputation for taking stands on controversial issues. Marriage equality and LGBTQ rights, for example, were incredibly polarizing at the time. But we've consistently found ourselves on the right side of history, and I think we've built an incredible brand by doing so.
Bringing together people with experience in this kind of work and pairing them with world-class marketing talent is how we make it all happen.
There will always be critique, but you try things, you learn, and you keep moving forward. You just keep moving.
Trend or Tragic
CM: Trendy. There's this T-Mobile Tuesday app—you open it up and it's full of incredible deals. And honestly, who cares if I’m in a cinder block building where my phone doesn’t work? I’ve got T-Mobile Tuesdays and free Wi-Fi on the airplane!
CM: Trendy. You start off thinking, 'Wow, $25 sunglasses—this is amazing! Why would I need $300 Ray-Bans?' But then you realize you’ve spent $600 on Goodrs because you end up with 80 pairs. You lose them, and since they’re cheap, they scratch easily. But honestly, they’re still great!
Glamping
CM: Ah, tragic. There’s no part of camping—whether it’s glamping or regular camping—that I’m really into. If I’m going somewhere, I want a room where someone comes in the morning, makes my bed, and gives me fresh towels.
Check out Chris Miller on LinkedIn and Ben & Jerry’s at www.benjerry.com.
As for us, follow @namedrop.pod on Instagram & LinkedIn and @molbakes on Instagram for all future episodes and insights.
