Pulse Signal Agency · Guerrilla brief response
The Long
Way Home
The internet carries Ben & Jerry's back to Vermont, one pint at a time.
$14,750
Total budget
14
Days
200
Runaways
$0
Paid media
Bring Ben & Jerry's home. Every mile is a signal.
The problem
Pressure already exists.
We need something
the world can't ignore.
Petitions, letters, posts and press have made the case. Over 200,000 people have signed on. What is missing is an event people cannot look away from, and cannot help joining.
The insight
People don't want
another thing to share.
Give them
something to move.
Sharing is passive and it is everywhere. Carrying a small thing somewhere, together, is the internet's favourite group project.
The one thing to remember
Find it. Carry it.
Scan it. Get it closer.
1
Find it
On a canal ledge, a café table, a train seat. A tiny pint with a tag.
2
Carry it
Any distance, any way. A backpack, a train, a flight, a school bus.
3
Scan it
Two scans, no app, no account. The distance between them is your miles.
4
Get it closer
Leave it somewhere findable, or hand it on. Every mile lands on Magnum's report.
I got #184
212
Miles closer
1,438 miles to home
Get it closer.
The earned media engine
Mystery → Participation → Homecoming
Wave 1
Days 0 to 3
What is this?
Tiny pints on canal ledges. A bedsheet rope across from Magnum HQ. No brand, no explanation.
"Tiny ice cream figures are climbing out of a window across from Magnum's Amsterdam headquarters"
Dutch press, design and culture blogs, meme accounts
Wave 2
Days 3 to 7
The internet figures it out
A live map. The first pint crosses the Atlantic in a stranger's backpack. The existing audience ignites it.
"Strangers are carrying Ben & Jerry's 'home' to Vermont, one pint at a time"
Tech and marketing trades, national lifestyle, morning shows
Wave 3
Days 7 to 14
The homecoming
#001 reaches Waterbury. Ben explains. The report goes back to Magnum.
"A pint of ice cream made it home to Vermont. Ben Cohen says the company should too"
Business and national news, Adweek, Campaign, The Drum
Headlines are illustrative. Carriers, miles, cities, countries and Safe Houses are reported separately from the live map.
The character
The
Runaway
Four inches tall. Numbered. Scannable. Printable at home.
No logo, no packaging, no brand cow. A cloud lid, a green band and a cow-spot bindle carry the DNA. Homemade Runaways are welcome. They are participation.
Cloud lid
The sky over Vermont, borrowed.
Green band
Pasture, Vermont, the original label.
Cow-spot bindle
A runaway's whole life in one bundle.
No. 184
Its number is its identity and its receipt.
Get it closer.
No. 184 · Scan to move me
Three words on a tag. Anyone who finds a Runaway knows what to do without a caption, a hashtag or an app.
The Road Home · live map
Every mile is
a signal.
3,540
Miles to home · every one logged for Magnum
- 01 Amsterdam
- 02 Schiphol
- 03 New York
- 04 Boston
- 05 Waterbury, VT
#001 · guaranteed
#001 travels with a trusted carrier, quietly, and is certain to reach Waterbury on Day 7. The payoff is never left to chance.
#002 to #200 · wild
The other 199 go wherever people take them. Some vanish, some turn up somewhere absurd, some barely move. That's the story.
Day 2 · 05:50 · across from Magnum HQ
The escape.
Rented facade, temporary installation notice filed. Looks illicit. Isn't.
This already happened
Ben already walked to that door.
On 7 April 2026 Ben Cohen carried the petitions to Magnum's Amsterdam headquarters. Nobody came down. The Long Way Home sends what he couldn't: two hundred small couriers, and everyone who picks one up.
Photographs: the Free Ben & Jerry's campaign
The internet takes over
Raw materials,
not finished ads.
The core stays simple. These extras help it spread, but none of them is the idea.
Extra · DIY Runaways
One page to print, fold and tape. The first scan gives it a number. A homemade Runaway that reaches Vermont counts too.
Extra · Creator seed
Thirty boxes. One Runaway, its number, its mileage, one instruction. The object writes the content.
Extra · Safe House
Cannot carry? Shelter. A tag on your own pint registers your freezer as a dot on the map.
Extra · The Counter
Carriers, miles, cities, countries and Safe Houses, reported separately and live.
Ignition
After three days of mystery, the existing audience lights it: over 200,000 supporters signed on, roughly 800K @yobencohen followers, a Reddit community, and volunteer Brigades already organised in Vermont and the Netherlands. No paid media.
200K+
Signed on
800K
Following Ben
2
Live brigades
$0
Paid media
The homecoming · Waterbury, Vermont · Day 7
#001
arrives.
The business ask
The pints made it home.
Now let Ben & Jerry's.
In 2000, Ben & Jerry's was sold with an unusual agreement designed to protect its independent social mission. Today the Free Ben & Jerry's campaign, launched by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, calls on The Magnum Ice Cream Company to allow Ben & Jerry's to become an independently owned company, with socially aligned investors, once again free to honour its social mission and live by its brand values, without compromise.
Day 14
The journey closes its loop: Amsterdam to Vermont to Magnum. A report is delivered to Magnum's board, and to its Euronext Amsterdam shareholders, listing every carrier, mile, city, country and Safe House.
Every mile is a signal.
The execution plan
Looks enormous.
Costs $14,750.
of a $20,000 ceiling · zero paid media
Official Runaways
200 units, 3D print farm, NFC and tags
$1,400
Amsterdam escape
Facade let, rigging, notice and insurance, photographer and drone, departures board; placements by the Netherlands Brigade
$4,700
The Road Home
Mobile web, two-scan flow, live map, share card, hosting
$3,800
Print and DIY kit
Stickers, spare tags, flat-pack PDF, stencil, share templates
$800
Creator seed boxes
30 boxes, mailed
$750
Vermont homecoming
Homecoming Wall built with the Vermont Brigade, bell, rope shipped, local photographer
$1,100
Counsel review
Character, campaign language, installations
$1,000
Contingency
—
$1,200
Total
$14,750
Optional extension, not required: the cow's slow journey home, about $700. Scale comes from DIY replication and the campaign's existing Vermont and Netherlands Brigades, not from more units. Estimates for planning; vendor quotes to follow.
The coverage that already exists