American ice cream company Ben and Jerry’s has jumped in to the same sex marriage debate in Ireland.
Ahead of Ireland’s marriage equality referendum on May 22, Ben and Jerry’s has declared its support for the Yes Equality campaign. Yesterday the company released a video featuring Irish celebrities showing just how easy it is to say “yes.”
The video stars actors Ian Lloyd Anderson and Emmet Kirwan, models Vogue Williams, Holly Carpenter and Thalia Heffernan, comedian Joanne McNally and Dublin GAA players Michael Darragh MacAuley and Rory O’Carroll.
"At Ben & Jerry’s we believe everyone deserves the right to love who they love," said Ed Shepherd, Social Mission Manager.
"Equality has been a core value of Ben & Jerry’s since the company’s earliest days and marriage equality is an issue that’s particularly near and dear to the brand.
Ben and Jerry’s will also be holding a series of “Yestivals” throughout Ireland in late April and early May, with a truck offering free cones to supporters who pledge to vote “yes.”
Ben and Jerry’s was founded in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who ran an ice cream parlor out of a gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
The company’s Irish website explains that from the beginning of Ben and Jerry’s 37-year-history, the company “has supported equal rights for all people. Now, as Irish people decide on the future of marriage equality, we want to show our support for a Yes vote…”
They have previously supported equal marriage campaigns in the US and UK, changing the name of the popular flavor Chubby Hubby to Hubby Hubby in the US in 2009, and renaming Oh My! Apple Pie! to Apple-y Ever After in the UK in 2012.
Previously in Ireland, in 2013 they changed the name of their Mint Chocolate Chunk flavor to EngageMint Party and urged members of the Irish government to call for the referendum on marriage equality.
A number of other businesses in Ireland have demonstrated their support for a “Yes” vote, including Twitter, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, as well as Blue Insurance, InterTech Ireland, and Microsoft.
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