Ben Cohen’s Up In Arms Sparks Viral Hiroshima Protest at Disneyland

To mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Ben Cohen—co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s and long-time activist—quietly staged a cultural protest that is now gaining global attention.

On August 3rd, a small, ash-covered doll holding a sign that read 'Remember Hiroshima' appeared inside Disneyland’s It’s a Small World ride, triggering viral videos, national media coverage, and renewed public conversation about the human cost of war.

The action was organised under the banner of Up In Arms, a new activist initiative launched by Cohen to challenge runaway Pentagon spending and advocate for redirecting public investment toward schools, housing, health care, and other essential needs.

The agency behind the effort was DCX Growth Accelerator Ad Age’s 2024 Purpose-Driven Small Agency of the Year (Silver), and a long-time creative partner to Ben & Jerry’s. While this was not a Ben & Jerry’s effort, but an effort for Cohen’s new organisation Up In Arms, Ben reached out to DCX, who are a long time strategic and creative partner to Ben & Jerry’s.

Known for headline-grabbing stunts like The Payless Prank (a fake luxury brand named Palessi created to expose fashion markups), Boxed Out (an indie bookstore takeover confronting Amazon), and Voodoo Ranger’s wine-country prank, DCX has a strong track record of turning earned media ideas into what they call “cultural moments.”

Working with Ben’s team, DCX proposed a series of “cultural interventions”—bold, media-savvy actions inspired by art and activist movements like The Situationist International, particularly the technique of détournement, which involves hijacking and subverting familiar cultural symbols.

​Doug Cameron, DCX founder and copywriter behind the Hiroshima concept, was detained by Disney security after entering the park with his four-year-old daughter and helping place the protest doll inside the ride. He was reportedly issued a lifetime ban from Disneyland. The incident was reported in Politico and has only intensified public interest, as footage of the doll continues to spread across social media.

Doug explained, “We weren’t trying to start a fight with Disney—we were trying to start a conversation, on the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, that America keeps avoiding: What does war do to children? And Disneyland felt like the right place to ask it.”

The stunt was executed by Doug, along with a small camera crew coordinated by 'executive prank producer' Booker Sims, and DCX alumna Sarah Donze, who carried the doll. Footage of Sarah walking calmly through the park with the doll in hand has become one of the most widely shared clips, garnering hundreds of thousands of views within hours. The doll was quickly spotted by parkgoers and has since gone viral on social media. In the Its a Small World ride, the doll appears out of place—still, ash-smeared, and unblinking—amid the colourful optimism of the theme park. That contrast was intentional.

In a video from Up In Arms explaining the civil disobedience act, Ben explained why they placed the doll in the It’s a Small World ride.

“We did this because people forget what war does to kids. Hiroshima wasn’t just a military target—it was a city full of children.” Ben Cohen said. “Children aren’t targets. They're not acceptable losses. They're sacred. And if we can't treat them that way, what are we even defending? Why did we do it at It’s a Small World? Because it's a ride that celebrates the kind of world we want for our children. So we put her there to speak for the kids we didn't save.”

Up In Arms, founded by Cohen, is a new campaign pushing back against runaway Pentagon budgets and calling for public investment in basics—like schools, housing, and health care—instead of nuclear overkill. Through cultural protest and strategic media interventions, the campaign seeks to refocus public attention on the human cost of war.

“At this moment, when the nation is in deep introspection about its foreign policy, we wanted to focus on one truth everybody has to acknowledge on some level: that war takes a terrible toll on children, as it did in Hiroshima,” said Doug Cameron, founder of DCX Growth Accelerator. “While developing this idea, all I kept thinking about was that I am the father of a four-year-old, and I could never, ever, ever call my daughter’s death an ‘acceptable loss.’ And I don’t think anyone who’s ever loved a child could either. That’s the truth we wanted to keep front and centre—and that we wanted the public to think about, and that's why we did this in Disneyland.”