Skip Starbuck’s for World AIDS Day
I discovered this wonderful corporate outreach by Starbuck’s on World AIDS Day through Facebook. It appears that Starbuck’s is going to oh-so-generously donate 5 cents when you buy one of their beverages. Well, not any beverage of course. It has to be one of three holiday specials, so they won’t be sacrificing 5 cents on their less exorbitantly-priced beverages. It’s not just people dying in Africa depending on them, after all. They have shareholders dependent on them as well.
I know that reads sarcastically, but I’m actually one of the last people to complain about someone making money by providing a product people like. In fact, kudos to them for some brilliant marketing. That’s what it is, after all. I’d be willing to bet they’ll spend more on the ad campaign promoting their “charity” than they will actually end up donating. Let’s be real. Starbuck’s is not a charity. It’s a business.
I’m a firm believer that charity should never be an obligation but rather something people choose to do in following their own passions. If you decide to do something charitable, don’t do it out of a sense of guilt. But I would like to offer this suggestion. If you feel guilty for paying $4 for an unhealthy treat while people are dying in Africa, just skip the drink for one day and instead donate that money to an AIDS charity of your choice. Let’s do a little math.
I just checked my local Starbuck’s in Keene and as of tonight (11/28/08) their drinks were $3.50, $4.05 and $4.35 depending on the size. I think one was a little more than the others and I imagine the prices vary by location. One of the employees said that most people get the middle size so I’ll go with that for simplicity. As of this writing, there are over 550,000 people planning to attend this event, which I guess means they’re going to buy one or more of these drinks during the event time period. At 5 cents a drink, that amounts to $27,500! Certainly not chump change, and that’s assuming they only buy one drink. Oh, and it’s over $2 million for Starbuck’s, but it’s well-earned in my opinion after such a brilliant feel-good marketing plan. However, if each one of those 550,000 plus people skipped buying that drink for just one day, say World AIDS Day (Dec 1st), and instead donated what they would have paid directly to charity, those charities would get over $2 million! (instead of Starbuck’s)
I’ve created an alternative event on Facebook sponsored by the Anarchy In Your Head Fan Club for people who will skip one day of Starbuck’s and donate the cost of the drink they would have purchased to their preferred AIDS charity. I plan to participate myself and I suspect it will be a greater contribution than anyone gives simply by buying lots of Starbuck’s drinks. However, if you see someone bouncing off the walls for a month solid, it’s possible I’m mistaken about that. To give the equivalent of the cost of one drink by actually buying the drinks, at 5 cents donation per, you’d have to buy 81 of them for a total of of $328.05 not counting tax!
In the meantime, think about the emotional health or unhealth of a society with a moral framework based on positive obligations and an expectation of serving your fellow man. While sincere charitable acts from the heart can be very healthy for both the giver and the receiver, I happen to think the former is unhealthy and even destructive, but I’ll address that in more detail another time.
Note that this is not any kind of boycott of Starbuck’s. If you like it, by all means, enjoy it. I’m just trying to get people to see this promotion for what it is, without rose-colored glasses. That’s not a “RED” pun.
i’m going to buy a black coffee and leave the poor aids victims in the street where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth!
(just kidding, great idea. let charity be charity and treats be treats, though nice of starbuck’s to throw a few pennies into the pot, profit-driven or otherwsie).
I do not think that the 5 cent towards charity idea will sway very many people one way or another. So I think that most of what starbucks end up donating will be from sales they would have made even without the donation promotion.
The thing is that most people fall into the mindset that their piddly four dollars will do nothing, entirely neglecting to consider what happens when lots of given four dollars, or one, or even that nickel. What the government people don’t seem to understand is that the good people in the world would gladly donate something like $20 a week to a charity of their choice. The potential revenue, presupposing the inherent goodness of at least MILLIONS of people in the U.S. alone, is staggering. The government instills in people the sense that they already HAVE made that donation by virtue of being grossly robbed of their legitimate earnings every week. Every compassionate person in Keene that would willingly donate $20 a month even would alleviate many symptoms and ailments of need and poverty.
Good points, Vesuvius.
I’m sure my post is a little confusing for a lot of long-time readers of the comic and blog. Yes, I’m a free market advocate. No, Starbuck’s is not doing anything immoral here or violating anyone’s rights. I’m just calling them out on what I see as some very fake attempts at appearing altruistic. I think many people walk into Starbuck’s and feel guilty for treating themselves when the world seems to be going to shit around them. They feel guilty for spending $4 on a cup of coffee. I don’t think they should feel guilty for it. Economically stupid, maybe, but not guilty.
But Starbuck’s is simply marketing on that guilt and in a really cheesy and insincere way. They’re making it seem that you’re making the world a better place by buying their exorbitantly expensive (just my opinion) fancy coffee drinks. I’m just trying to make a call for some common sense here. If you’re real concern is to help AIDS charities, you’d do a lot more by skipping the over-priced crap for JUST ONE DAY. I’ve also heard that The Global Fund is not a charity you’d want to support and that you could do better if you chose your own charity. I didn’t research it so I just edited my post to suggest that everyone pick a charity they believe in, which can certainly be The Global Fund. Having that choice is another reason to skip Starbuck’s. I, for one, am a fan of more localized outreaches. I think they tend to be more effective and less entangled by bureaucracy, a mess that eats a lot of money which could go more directly to helping the intended recipients.
I repeat. This is not a boycott. If you have Starbuck’s on World AIDS Day, do it because you want some coffee; not for a fake aura of generosity.
I went into the seabrook starbucks today and informed them about how I was going to skip the coffee and donate the $4 to my favorite AIDS charity. The person that waited on me told me to come back tomorrow and get $4 from her as well. I pointed them to this site obviously.
I made a contribution to the AIDS Research Alliance in memory of Steven Flora, my first boyfriend, who died slowly and painfully from AIDS. I tried to find a local charity that provides some sort of support services and I’m going to keep looking. I may make another donation of that type.
Everyone Google “Starbucks World AIDS Day”. You won’t believe what’s at the very top! Remember to click the little up arrow next to the link to help KEEP it there.
This isn’t the first time SBX has done this; they do it just about every season, for a ‘season drink’ for a variety of charities. It sounds like AIDS is a charity close to your heart, but I think they’re doing a fairly decent thing.
Sorry to hear about Steven Flora.
I’ve never been inside a Starbuck’s in my life! Get a decent coffee maker, coffee, and thermos, and make your own. No waiting in line, and you’ll save quite a bit over the long haul.
I disagree with you on this one. Although I think you’re right, and starbucks is likely motivated by business interests, i don’t think corporations voluntarily giving some money to charity is a bad thing, regardless of their motivations. Starbucks is a company that had a reputation as being synomous with corporate globalism, but to their credit, they have made strides to improve things, including generous benefits for the workers and acquiring supplies through fair trade deals Regardless of their motivations, I think this is something to be applauded.
I didn’t say it was a bad thing. I merely offered a suggestion for a much more effective alternative for those sincerely interested in charity. Also, it’s very possible for it to “not be a bad thing” and still not be “something to be applauded”. I suggest you read my first comment in this thread.
Well, it’s not a reason to drink starbucks if you don’t already. But there is the concept of voting with your dollar. I think in a free market, it is not just utility that should influence purchasing decisions, but also morality. By paying money for a good or service, you are adding resource utilization capacity to a business or individual. You are essentially deciding that what it does is worth some resource control. From this standpoint, if companies began to see voluntary donations as adding to that value, it could theoretically become a common practice. Good charities coud then compete for the donations of companies. It seems like a somewhat viable answer to the question of how things could get done where there is no direct profit incentive.
i just want to say that you’re an idiot. duh, starbucks is a business. they’re not opening their doors just to make a buck on world aids day. they’ll roll in the dough no matter what day it is. i think it’s generous for them to donate anything at all. and for the average human being who may not have the money or free time to spend helping out charities, i’d say it makes them think twice about being charitable and may make them feel better about ordering what may be a fancier drink for one day. in addition, because of the ignorance that abounds not only in this country, but in our world, a person may not feel comfortable openly supporting aids research and education. anonymity is an option at starbucks. give the business and its patrons a break and let them do something they consider to be important. ps, it’s not such a bad thing for people to feel good about what they do.