Ben & Jerry’s has teamed up with Civil Rights campaign group HOPE not hate to encourage Londoners to register to vote in the forthcoming London Mayoral Election with a sampling tour of London and an honorary renaming of its classic Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavour to ‘Give a Fudge’.
The symbolic rename forms part of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Don’t Get Frozen Out’ campaign to drive equal access to democracy across London and address the fact that at present one in five Londoners are not correctly registered to vote .
Throughout March and April members of the Ben & Jerry’s herd will be reaching out to those not on the electoral register and encouraging them to register to vote with a sampling tour of London locations, including colleges, dishing out free scoops of ‘Give a Fudge’.
To ensure the ‘Don’t Get Frozen Out’ message reaches the areas where it’s needed most, the scooping tour will be visiting the London boroughs most affected by voter registration changes implemented in December 2015 which led to 329,000 Londoners falling off the electoral register .
Ed Shepherd, Social Mission Manager at Ben & Jerry's comments: “At Ben & Jerry’s we believe that democracy only works when it works for everyone. We need a democracy where all voices are heard, and we can all have a fair and equal say over the decisions that affect our capital. That’s why we’re teaming up with HOPE not hate to launch the ‘Don’t Get Frozen Out’ campaign, calling on all Londoners to register to vote and make sure their voice is counted in the May polls.”
The tour announcement comes as Ben & Jerry’s and HOPE not hate have published new research findings, which shows the extent to which the current democratic process is failing to connect with young Londoners, in particular, across the capital.
For more information on the ‘Don’t Get Frozen Out’ campaign, visit www.benjerry.co.uk/frozenout
Notes:
This figure is taken from research carried out by the Office for National Statistics for the Electoral Commission and relates to the electoral registers in April 2011. The full research report can be found here.
As above (ONS - full research report can be found here)