The founders behind ice-cream giant Ben & Jerry’s never wanted their brand to be all chocolate chips and cookie dough. Ever since setting up the company in a Vermont petrol station in 1978, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have been set on getting their worldview on to frozen goods aisles around the world.

Activism has always been a key part of the recipe, from “Justice ReMix’d”, a cinnamon and chocolate ice-cream launched “for an end to structural racism in our broken criminal legal system”, to raspberry and marshmallow “Save Our Swirled” to raise awareness of global warming, and apple pie-flavoured “Apple-y Ever After” in support of same-sex marriage in Britain.

In the past few weeks alone, the brand has lobbied for tougher gun control laws in America and hit out at Britain’s “racist” Rwanda plan.

But the brand is no small hipster start-up. It has been owned by Marmite maker Unilever since 2000, meaning one of the biggest global consumer goods giants has been cashing in on the ice-cream maker’s brand-boosting social campaigns while keeping a neutral corporate stance itself.

Ben & Jerry’s has an independent board, meaning that, unlike Unilever’s other brands, it has been able to make sure it is heard when it comes to political activism - without dragging its parent into the debate.

It can essentially do as it pleases, even setting up a “flavour graveyard” in Vermont so that fans can pay their respects to discontinued flavours, such as “Oh Pear” (1997) and “Economic Crunch” (1987).

But the light-hearted fun is over. Having ticked along nicely for years, the relationship between Ben & Jerry’s and its owner is now in a serious mess.

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The Telegraph, London