Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes his coffee black and his politics nonpartisan. Last year, in a move to break gridlock in Washington, he launched a campaign urging CEOs to boycott political donations. Now he’s leading “Indivisible,” an initiative focused on job creation.
Starbucks launched the “Indivisible” collection — a coffee blend, branded tumblers and mugs — in its stores in mid-June and makes a donation to the Create Jobs for USA fund every time an “Indivisible” item is purchased. Now the campaign is extending to social media in a special Fourth of July initiative. Schultz wrote yesterday on the company’s blog:
I invite you to share your view of America, and how we can all put citizenship over partisanship. On Instagram, post a photo of the America we all need to see. On Twitter, provide a link to an innovative idea. Blog about who’s making a difference in your community; or on YouTube, share how you made your American Dream come true. No matter where you post, if you use the tag #INDIVISIBLE, Starbucks will do its part to collect and amplify your voices.
That’s a little vague. Is it enough to get consumers excited? So far, #indivisible isn’t a trending topic on Twitter, but a search today reveals a few #indivisible tweets an hour. Posting to Instagram is interrupted by the fact that Instagram is down in a mass power outage. Still, we have a few days to go until July 4. On that day, “To spark the conversation in our stores, your local Starbucks will proudly serve everyone a free tall hot brewed coffee on the Fourth of July.” It’s yet to be seen whether the conversation that day will focus on job creation and nonpartisanship — or whether people will just be wondering why they didn’t get an iced coffee instead.
