Ben & Jerry's Latest Flavor Serves as a Call to Action

Ben & Jerry's knows they have the internet on their side. Each new flavor release is met with a certain amount of buzz, and now they're putting that popularity to work for a good cause. "Save Our Swirled," now available at scoop shops and grocery shelves nationwide, features raspberry ice cream, marshmallow and raspberry swirls, and chunks of white and dark chocolate fudge. But more importantly, it shares a name with the brand’s climate change campaign and the company's portion of the royalties from all sales of the flavor will go to support their partners in the global climate movement.

Specifically, the brand is trying to encourage their fans to to sign a petition from their partner Avaaz that calls on world leaders to transition to 100% clean energy by the year 2050, in keeping with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) call for the elimination of all fossil fuel carbon pollution in the next 85 years.

Ben & Jerry's has committed to the cause, with a special Save our Swirled tour that kicked off in April promoting the petition as well. And so far all this publicity from the ice cream icons is working to get the word out. So far, the petition has over 2 million signatures—well on its way to its 3 million goal.

Moral of the story: Go get some ice cream and feel good about it, too—you'll be supporting the planet.