Starbucks' holiday effort doubles as a social experiment

Starbucks is surprising Manhattan commuters with free subway passes and treating Chicagoans with free movie tickets. Kate McArthur reports the catch is Starbucks wants consumers to pass on their benevolence by performing a good deed for another person (maybe hold open a door or buy someone a cup of coffee). With each deed, the recipient is handed a "cheer pass," a numbered card that serves as a tracking device for the effort's viral component. (Read the story at AdAge.com)

Comments

[imabarista]

It is not just the big cities.
It is, as I understand, almost everywhere.

[Andrew]

This sounds really neat. I want to be part of it.

[June]

I want to gag!!!
Charity come from the heart not the coffee mug.

[Andrew]

If you even bothered to read the story, it has nothing to do with buying coffee.

kthx

[HopkinsBella]

Not a bad idea, really. Gonna hold doors for people whether I get a pass or not, but it's an extra smile.

Yeah, I'm cheesy. And I don't care.

[justaguy]

LOL like I'm gonna go on a website and type out "oh hey I did a good deed today! I stopped a cabbie or opened the door for someone!"

LOL if 3/4 of my store's prick customers just became LESS prickish - THAT would be a huge success in my book.

[imabarista]

Justaguy-
It is, like most of life, what you make of it.
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - A. Lincoln

[Becca]

I wish they had the program in Canada :I mean, technically, we could print the passes off ourselves, but I can't get the US site to perform properly.

[Sally]

Gag, well I would not used that word but I certainly understand why it was used.
This is phony charity.
Charity comes from the heart and when a company no matter how nobel their ideals may appear (and it really is an advertising ploy),
I am sorry this is just plain phony charity.

[Kristen]

I like it. It's creative and of course, is meant to get folks to buy more coffee.

[Seaspot]

The campaign is tacky, forced and too corporate. For a company that prides itself on 'not really advertising' it is spending upwards of 50 million (USD) on this campaign. Same store sales numbers have to go up, especially during the holidays. But, as for the hard items in SBUX, the consumer has already been trained to wait for the markdown price.
And have you been to the website yet? What is it is the freaky narrator/host? This is the voice of Starbucks? A pasty & soft doughboy? Howard S. needs to be the spokesperson, like he was in the past.

[cornfrost]

Seaspot, I also wondered about that bizarre narrator. Anything neutral would have been better, like an animated snowflake or something cute like the Zoloft depression blob.

[ACleverGuy]

This is a heartwarming promotion and something that's a bit more universal than the faux-hipness that Starbucks usually tries to posture. It's definately designed to produce a warm fuzzy and perhaps capture a bit more of the gift market to boost SBUX's non-coffee sales.

[Cory Nickolatos]

Good things and actions make me happy. I think it's good. :-)

one thing that critics are always on OPRAH about is that she has so much power and doesn't really use it to make a 'difference'...

(i mean, what's her stance on iraq?...anyone?)

but what differences she makes is by making people happier, making them treat themselves better and their fellow man...

and it only takes small things to change the world.

[Billy]

They are copying Dunkin Donuts. DD recently did a day where they paid all commuters tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and had several days where they charged only like 49 cents for a medium coffee and 99 cents for breakfast sandwich almost thru all of October.

Hey, if they are giving it, take it or don't. They got you talking about it whether you think it is phony corpro-speak or not. It worked.

[HopkinsBella]

Late to the ball on this one, but after visiting the redagain site for the first time, the only explanation I can come up with for the narrator is that he is what happens when humor fails.