Starbucks: Not just any coffee talk

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In 2015, Starbucks launched a campaign called Race Together that attempted to “spur conversation, empathy and compassion.” The idea of ​​the campaign was to have baristas write the slogan on cups to encourage customers to have a dialogue about racism. However, expecting staff to raise such an emotive topic was not well received. Some commentators pointed out that such sensitive topics could quickly escalate if handled insensitively.

Digital marketing consultancy Econsultancy wrote an lebanon mobile database article on “5 Things Brands Can Learn From the Failure of Race Together .” They concluded that the campaign’s failure can be attributed in part to its poor timing. “In the wake of high-profile incidents involving race, recent polls have found that Americans are more pessimistic about race relations than in other decades. While brands like Starbucks can see that as an opportunity to contribute to positive change, they should also consider that timing can influence how a message is received. A good message poorly timed can be just as poorly received as a bad message.”



Marks and Spencer: An LGBT sandwich?
Marks and Spencer has faced criticism on social media after launching an “LGBT+ sandwich”. The sandwich, filled with lettuce, guacamole, bacon and tomato (to comply with the LGBT acronym) came in rainbow-coloured packaging. The supermarket launched the sandwich to raise funds for the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), a charity dedicated to helping homeless LGBT+ youth, and BeLong to Youth Services, an organisation supporting LGBT+ youth in Ireland. However, many felt it was trivialising Pride to launch such a symbolic product, and were mercilessly mocked on social media.