Ben & Jerry’s spent over $80K on criminal justice reform Facebook ads in past week

Ben & Jerry’s spent about $83,000 in the past week on Facebook ads promoting criminal justice reform.

The figure surpasses the ad spending in the past week by all but a handful of presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), according to NBC News.

The company, already known for its advocacy for progressive causes, has spent more than $320,000 on political advertising on the social network in the last three months and more than $1 million since May 2018.

Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are also longtime political activists, although they have had no formal role with the company since selling it to Unilever in 2000. Cohen serves as a national co-chair on Sanders’s presidential campaign.

The ads feature cartoon drawings in the style of the art on the ice cream company’s cartons, many of which illustrate racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

“America locks people up at a higher rate than any other country on earth — and bias is baked right in,” the company says on its “Issues We Care About” page. “If you’re a person of color or struggling to make ends meet, you’re much more likely to be sent to prison — for a longer period of time — than a white person convicted of the same crime.”

The company’s ads link to a petition started in collaboration by Ben & Jerry’s and the progressive organization Color of Change. As of Tuesday, the petition has over 83,000 signatures.