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.”
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).
