The charitable Augustinian nuns of Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam are getting too old to physically administer to the homeless in the city’s famous red-light district. So when the convent sent out word that it needed funds to continue its work, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream pricked up its corporate ear. Ben & Jerry’s (a division of Unilever, the soap ‘n’ snacks conglom that put up posters of a flimsily dressed Sarah Jessica Parker in Jerusalem for its Lux soap) provided the homeless with a very generous supply of warm jackets, while not coincidentally taking advantage of them. (The Guardian)

On the jackets, of course, is emblazoned the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream logo, turning the tramps and addicts and drunks and unfortunates of every mental state imaginable, from comatose to psychotic, into walking (or possibly crawling) ambassadors for this Great American Ice Cream. “We prefer to call them ‘people of the street’, ” said a spokesnun, “The words ‘beggar’ or ‘homeless’ immediately give rise to a negative image.”