It Starts with your Name

Too woke for India?

Starbucks recently (10/5/23) announced their new marketing campaign, it’s called ‘It Starts with Your Name’. Through this marketing campaign, Starbucks is celebrating individuality and being people first. Deepa Kriahan, Chief Marketing Officer at Tata Starbucks said, “At Starbucks, we are not in the coffee business serving people but in the people business serving coffee, nurturing the limitless possibilities of human connection every day, with ‘It starts with your Name.’”

I believe that their marketing campaign is very smart especially because your name is a huge part of the experience at Starbucks. I think it’s truly beautiful how they stood up for transgender rights and acceptance when the backlash is inevitable. I think the timing of the campaign is also spectacular with the hearing of same-sex petitions coming to an end for the judges to deliberate on.

They also released an ad where a couple's ‘son’ has chosen to portray oneself more femininely and has changed their name from ‘Arpit’ to ‘Arpita’. The couple is meeting their child after a long time and we see how the mother and father finally accept Arpita by ordering coffee for ‘Arpita’s family.

This ad has gotten mixed reactions on social media platforms. One side is applauding Starbucks for its bold ad and the other side is making #boycottstarbucks trend.

Everyone who’s trying to #boycottstarbucks thinks that the ad is too woke for India. They’ve said that ads like these are for the United States of America and not India.

One Twitter user went as far as to say:

“They are trying to indoctrinate your kids into evil wokeism of trangenderism.”

The funny thing is that everyone trying to #boycottstarbucks is failing. In support of Starbucks, people are posting pictures of their Starbucks drinks.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as ‘too woke’. Being ‘too woke’ is good. Kudos to Starbucks for producing one of the best, most heart-warming ads. Pushing the expectation and the boundaries of people to support what they believe in, the individual and choice.

IT STARTS WITH YOUR NAME