Women’s Group: Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Drinks Fund Trump
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 6, 2017
CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com | (516) 841-1105
New Ad Campaign Targets Starbucks Over Financial Support of Trump
As Company Rolls Out Their Popular Pumpkin Spice Season, UltraViolet Demands Starbucks Live Up to Professed Values, Sever Financial Ties to Trump, Remove Starbucks Stores from Trump Properties
Timed to the beginning of “pumpkin spice season,” UltraViolet, a leading national women’s organization, has launched a new ad campaign slamming Starbucks over its continued financial support of President Trump and the Trump Organization, calling on Starbuck’s executive chairman Howard Schultz to take direct action and remove Starbucks stores from Trump properties – including Trump Tower in New York City and Trump Hotel in DC.
The online ad campaign comes on the heels of Trump’s decision to eliminate DACA protections for more than 800,000 undocumented, young Americans living and working in the United States. The campaign targets Starbuck’s followers on Twitter and Instagram with ads reading, “Pumpkin Spice is Back… [and] Proceeds are funding white supremacy in the White House.”
VIEW THE ONLINE AD HERE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/weareultraviolet/36863201566/in/album-72157686164554414/
Last week, Starbucks President and CEO, Kevin Johnson, signed onto a letter declaring support of DACA protections, and Starbucks’ Executive Chairman Howard Schultz published a piece in The Financial Times where he called on elected officials in the United States to work together to ‘heal America’s wounds.’ The piece comes just weeks after Schultz spoke out about white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, and President Trump’s reaction to that violence, in which he explained: “What we witnessed this past weekend…is against every sense of what is right. My fear is not only that this behavior is being given permission and license, but its conduct is being normalized to the point where people are no longer hiding their face.”
But UltraViolet rejects Schultz’s half-hearted denunciations of President Trump, pointing out that Starbucks, his company, has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in leases to the Trump Organization. UltraViolet argues that if Starbucks is serious about rejecting Trump’s hateful and dangerous policies, that they would sever all financial ties to the Trump Organization – that includes finding new locations for Starbucks stores within Trump properties.
Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, explained:
“The fact that Starbucks continues to line Donald Trump’s pocket flies in the face of the higher ethical standard the company claims to have. Words are cheap and op-eds are meaningless when Starbucks spends millions on leases in Trump properties, putting money directly into the pockets of a racist, misogynistic bigot.
“Pumpkin spice just doesn’t taste as good when you add a shot of racism, and Starbucks customers deserve to know that their favorite products, including the recently rolled out pumpkin spice lattes, help put money into Donald Trump’s pocket. If Starbucks and Howard Schultz are serious about living up to the values and ideals that they claim – it’s time to take real action when it comes to denouncing hate and sever all financial ties to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization.”
A petition from UltraViolet calling on Starbucks and Nike to reject Trump’s hateful rhetoric and divisiveness by severing financial ties with the Trump Organization has been signed by more than 73,000 people.
VIEW THE PETITION HERE: https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/trump_tower_stores/