Starbucks Doubles Down on ‘Race Together’ Campaign

Every brand wants to go viral, but typically not to the tune of thousands of Twitter users making fun of it.

Following the announcement of Starbucks’ “Race Together” campaign, the Twittersphere exploded with comments and jokes that painted Starbucks as naive at best and self-righteously out of touch at worst.

Take this smattering of online feedback via a Mediate article titled “Let’s All Make Fun of Starbucks’ Idea to Force Baristas to Talk Race with Customers”:

Twitter users weren’t the only ones ready to poke fun at what they viewed as Starbucks’ tone deafness. Take this recommendation for a future Starbucks order from Jia Tolentino’s piece for Jezebel titled How to Talk About Race With Your Starbucks Barista: A Guide:

"I'll have three quad espressos — one shot for each factor by which white household net worth in America outpaces black net worth. Sorry, is this awkward? I thought Carl would be working this morning. I actually don't know the stats for Asians. But you look well-educated — those cultures really value hard work."

In short, the company did not get the pat on the back for social responsibility it was most likely hoping for. Still, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was quick to dismiss naysayers at the company’s annual meeting on March 18.

"There will be cynics and some in the media who criticize Starbucks," Schultz said, according to USA Today, which, it should be noted, has partnered with Starbucks for the “Race Together” initiative. "This is not some marketing or PR exercise. This is to do one thing: use our national footprint and scale for good."

Not all company representatives were so steadfast in the face of criticism, however. Critics pointed out the irony of Starbucks Senior Vice President of Global Communications Corey duBrowa deleting his Twitter account after receiving a cavalcade of criticism regarding the campaign.

duBrowa has reinstated his Twitter account, along with a post detailing why he deleted it in the first place.

"I felt personally attacked in a cascade of negativity,” he wrote. “I got overwhelmed by the volume and tenor of the discussion, and I reacted. Most of all, I was concerned about becoming a distraction from the respectful conversation around Race Together that we have been trying to create.”

Schultz and duBrowa are free to refer to their critics as haters, but the truth could be even simpler. Maybe the “Race Together” campaign represents something incredibly rare for the company: a huge misstep.