Meet Nicole #whatsyourname
Starbucks welcomes you, whoever you are and whomever you want to be.
“I decided whatever I open this magazine on I’m gonna go with whatever name dominates that page”
Nicole’s story is part of Starbucks wider #whatsyourname campaign:
At Starbucks, we have always aspired to be a different kind of company. We are driven by our mission – to inspire and nurture the human spirit; one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.
Since our beginnings, Starbucks has been a values-led company and we continue to work towards creating a warm and inclusive Third Place. A place where members of the community can gather, feel welcomed and experience a deep sense of connection. We work to bring our mission to life by creating an equitable, diverse and inclusive culture: in our workplace, our communities, and in our stores.
Taking a customer’s name, writing it on a cup and calling it out is a symbol of our warm welcome. It is part of the Starbucks Experience and creates a moment of connection between our baristas and customers.
Starbucks #whatsyourname campaign celebrates this signature act and the significance it can have for some transgender and gender diverse people as they use their new name in public. The advert, created in partnership with creative agency Iris, 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 recognised 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. The recognition by Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award provides us with an ideal platform to demonstrate how moments of connection can have real impact, while also helping to address the transgender community’s lack of representation in UK advertising.
As part of this campaign, we also saw this as an opportunity to leverage our scale to help expand the vital support services needed within the transgender community and their families. Therefore, we are partnering with the charity Mermaids with the aim of raising at least £100,000 for their helpline through the sale of a special edition Mermaid Cookie in our stores.
The organisation has seen over a 600% increase in demand for its helpline service in the past five years, and our support will help grow this service, allowing the charity to employ an additional helpline operator and extend its webchat service.
Susie Green, CEO of Mermaids, said: “The funds raised through #whatsyourname will allow us to make a meaningful change to our helpline that supports young trans people and their families who are so desperately in need of access to information and reassurance.”
As part of the #whatsyourname campaign, ‘Moving Portraits’ celebrate real life stories of how people chose their new names.
