Written by Krishanu
A recent ad campaign by Tata Starbucks — with the tagline “It starts with your name” — has garnered quite a bit of attention. It is neither new nor shocking to see one of the biggest coffee chains leveraging “woke” themes – in this case, featuring a trans person and a supposed “trans issue”. The campaign follows a couple waiting for their child to arrive. Upon arrival, we find out that the child is a trans person. After some awkward and uncomfortable moments, acceptance prevails when the father orders three coffees for “Arpita”, which is the child’s chosen name, and not deadname. This ad has been released at a time when the marriage equality debate is centrestage and simultaneously, efforts are being made for horizontal reservation for transgender persons.
The timing of the campaign is also crucial as it is only two weeks to June, which is observed as International Pride Month. Corporations all over the world are known to try marketing strategies that piggyback on “queer inclusivity” during this time. Starbucks has created a buzz by trying to capitalise on queer-trans identities two weeks early.
The campaign revolves around the familiar notion of “acceptance”. According to this worldview, queer and trans people seek the approval of others — in this case, a natal family, especially the father. Narratives like these reinforce the idea that queer lives are centred around acceptance from mainstream society. This trope of “acceptance” is not the only thing that attempts to try and mainstream the othered trans individual: The very location of the ad — an elite coffee chain — is a move to place the trans body in upper-class spaces.
It is important, then, to ask questions about who benefits from the representation in such campaigns.
First, and most important, it is the brand/company — the ad targets the upper-class, liberal population who can be sold on such token inclusivity. But the fact is that this is not the first and will surely not be the last campaign of its kind. As a result, it has the potential to generate employment opportunities for trans models and actors and could benefit them as individuals.
Beyond these, I see little in terms of what such ad campaigns can achieve. If corporations like Starbucks actually care about the “trans issues” then they must have gender-neutral washrooms across their outlets and follow reservation for trans persons in their recruitment process. Without these material benefits for the trans population, ads such as these will just become different colours in the spectrum of rainbow capitalism.
The writer is a masters student at AUD and a trans activist
