Starbucks has started a new advertising campaign, #whatsyourname, in the United Kingdom in partnership with Mermaids, a nonprofit group that supports young trans-identifying people and their families, the coffee chain has announced.
Starbucks’ #whatsyourname campaign “celebrates” the company’s signature practice of taking a customer’s name, writing it on a cup and calling it out, by extending it to “transgender and gender diverse people,” the American coffee chain says in a statement.
It’s to celebrate “the significance it can have for some transgender and gender diverse people as they use their new name in public.” It’s “a symbol of our warm welcome. It is part of the Starbucks Experience and creates a moment of connection between our baristas and customers,” the company adds.
As part of the campaign, the company released a commercial showing a trans-identifying teen looking uncomfortable every time her name “Jemma” is called. Only when a Starbucks barista calls “James,” that’s when the teen is seen smiling. The commercial was created in partnership with creative agency Iris and “was inspired by real life experiences of people who were transitioning. We discovered that they found Starbucks stores to be a safe space, where their new name was accepted, and they could be recognized as who they are.”
“We were moved to discover that individuals find our stores a safe space to try out their new names when transitioning.”
Starbucks is also selling “mermaid tail” cookies in its stores to financially support the transgender helpline run by Mermaids with the aim of raising at least £100,000 (roughly $130,000).
SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar
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