Ben Cohen
Posted on 07/20/2004 6:27:25 PM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
The co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is on the road, towing a 12-foot-tall effigy of President Bush with fake flames shooting out of the pants.
Ben Cohen believes it is an acceptable way to point out what he calls the president's lies.
"In a polite society, you don't go up to a person and look at them in the face and say, 'You're a liar,'" Cohen said in a telephone interview before arriving in Spokane, the next stop on the Pants on Fire Tour.
"We think it's a lot more dignified and there's a lot more decorum to say, 'Excuse me sir, your pants are getting a little warm, don't you think?'" Cohen said.
The "PantsOnFire-Mobile" is a trailer pulled behind a car. The Bush character is wearing a flight suit with the words "Mission Accomplished" emblazoned on the back, a reference to the president's declaration that major hostilities had ended in Iraq. An electronic ticker on the front shows what Cohen says are Bush's lies.
The head is a rotating cylinder with various Bush facial expressions.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said most people in America support Bush's policies, and that the president supports free speech.
"The president welcomes the fact that we live in a democracy and that people in this country are free to make their own opinions known," Lisaius said.
Ben & Jerry's pioneered "mobile promotions," when Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield took an RV across the country and doled out ice cream on a nationwide "scooping tour," in lieu of expensive national advertising. The same concept is at work with the PantsOnFire-Mobile, Cohen said.
The project is run by volunteers. Cohen flies to a town to train a crew of drivers, teaching them things like how to crank up the smoke machine. Volunteers come from an Internet organization Cohen founded called TrueMajority.org, which he said has 500,000 members.
The Web site, which sends out liberal action calls to subscribers, is not affiliated with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. In 2000, international conglomerate Unilever purchased the ice cream company. Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield now serve as "ambassadors" for the company.
Reaction to the effigy across the country has been overwhelmingly positive, Cohen said, so much so that he has commissioned a second one to tour.
Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado.
---
On the Net: www.TrueMajority.org
I would like to see Benny boy roll one of his Bush effigies down my street.
Old Ben is a socialist. Just tell him you are going to borrow "our" trailer for a few months...
But it is polite to haul a 12 ft likeness of them down the road as it burns.
Ben Cohen cannot document a single lie that W has told,
unlike Klintoon. He can use his ice cream for an enema
as far as I'm concerned.
Ben and Jerry? Christ, cant they come up with any new lefties? Who is next, Grace Slick and David Crosby?
These libs are just getting more and more extreme. These folks are certifiable.
Irony is that their "great lie" is that "Bush lied".
This ought to be about Sandy Berger.
Well, they *do* believe in recycling, after all.
"It's much more polite to mock them in effigy, thousands of miles away."
I wonder how many of Ben's employees got laid off when he sold out to corporate America.
Errata: "Reaction to the effigy accross the county has been overwelmingly positive..."
Mr. Cohen said that next week he will take his display out of San Francisco and across the Bay into Oakland.
I wonder how left wingers ever develop a successful business to begin with.
Hmmm...who's that total babe that used to hang out with Jerry Brown? I sure can't recall her name....but she'd probably qualify.
What IS her name? This is gonna really bug me, and I probably won't sleep a wink tonight until I get it.
... not affiliated with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. In 2000, international conglomerate Unilever purchased the ice cream company. Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield now serve as "ambassadors" for the company.Hmmm, isn't this the same 'Unilever' we just got done writing to concerning Whoopie Goldberg? Looks like its time to just do an outright boycott of all Unilever products. They just don't get it!!!
Unilever brands:
Axe, Bertolli, Birdseye, Cif, Comfort, Domestos, Dove, Family Brand, Findus, Healthy Heart, Heart, Hellman's, Iglo, Knorr, Lipton, Lux, Omo, Ponds, Radiant, Rexona, Signal, Slim fast, Sunsilk, UBF Food Solutions
Linda Ronstadt?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.