9. Connecting with Consumers >
9.1 Social Mission Campaigns >
9.1.1 American Pie Campaign
American Pie Campaign
For over a decade, Ben & Jerry’s has spoken up for common sense, progressive priorities in the federal budget. In fact, one part of our company’s statement of values says, “We believe government resources are more productively used in meeting human needs than in building and maintaining weapons systems.”
In 2006, we looked at the $30 billion in the U.S. budget earmarked for nuclear weapons spending — while millions of American children are living in poverty or without health insurance — and we decided the time was right to speak out on this important issue once again.
In May, we launched the American Pie Campaign. We churned 
up a limited batch of American Pie ice cream and used the pint package to raise awareness about federal spending priorities. The pint lid itself features a pie chart of the federal discretionary budget.
With our partners at The Children’s Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Defense Information, the National Priorities Project, and True Majority, we also launched an interactive American Pie website to educate visitors about the federal budget and the basic unmet needs of millions of children in America.
Just for the site, we created an original American Pie quiz game, a short Kids Count Flash movie, a budget allocation game, a link to co-founder Ben Cohen’s BB Demonstration, and a link to the Children’s Defense Fund, where people could take action by contacting Congress. The site peaked at 105,000 page views in July and averaged almost 45,000 per month from May to September.
Just in time for summer, we hit the road with a mobile American Pie Tour, spending five days in Washington, DC; Boston; Chicago; San Francisco; Denver; and Portland, OR. In each city, the tour featured games, educational materials, postcard writing stations, and free samples of American Pie.
In all, we scooped over 11,000 free samples of ice cream and collected 2,450 postcards to send to Congress in support of common sense budget priorities. Children’s Defense Fund representatives participated in several events, and co-founders Ben and Jerry even joined us for our stop in Washington, DC.
We also activated the campaign in Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops around the country. In many of our stores, table top easel boards featured American Pie messaging and scoopers distributed Federal Spending position papers with tear-away postcards to Congress.