unknown filmmaker | #ItStartsWithYourName / 2023 [commercial advertisement]

the name on a cup

by Douglas Messerli

 

unknown filmmaker #ItStartsWithYourName / 2023 [2 minutes]

 

In 2020 I wrote about a new ad campaign in the United Kingdom for Starbucks featuring a transgender individual. Three years later, the Seattle-born company, now a ubiquitous site in most urban areas throughout the world, has done something similar in India, where such shifts in gender are much more controversial.

      A father and mother sit waiting in a Starbucks for their child to show up. From the father’s cellphone we gather the young offspring is a man named Arpit. The phone goes unanswered as the mother leans over to her husband, begging him to not “to get angry this time please.”

      As she finishes her statement, a young woman in a dress (transgender actor Siya) arrives, gently hugging both her mother and father. A slight frown passes the father’s face as he rises to order their coffees.

      There is tension in the air as the family sits quietly waiting for their order; but soon after the barista calls out “three cold coffees for Arpita,” testifying that despite his druthers, the father has ordered the coffee under his daughter’s name, verbally commenting, “For me, you are still my kid. Only a letter has been added to your name.”

     In India the commercial advertisement has gathered over 5.1 million views, and there has been high praise by the liberal communities. But there has also been a great deal of anger expressed among more conservative elements of the country, many calling for a ban of Starbucks shops and others claiming that such a “woke” ad is inappropriate for Hindu culture, the language in which the ad appears.

     The Indian representative of this #ItStartswithYourName ad, argues that “it shows how Tata Starbucks is committed to making people of all backgrounds and identities feel welcome. ... We will continue to use our voice to advocate for greater understanding on the importance of inclusion and diversity across the communities we serve around the world.”

     Now, if only Starbucks USA might create such a campaign. Little as that name on a cup means—particularly in a chain, as some complain, in which the baristas seldom get the customer’s name right—it would have a remarkable impact in Trump’s denigrated “Amerca.” Surely, the President might even threaten to sue the company. But the bravery of such an ad would speak louder than any such threats.

 

Los Angeles, July 28, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema (July 2025).