Starbucks launches festive campaign with lesbian twist

No mention of red cups… yet, Starbucks has launched a festive ad campaign including a same-sex twist.

The inclusive ad has been launched and is available to view on YouTube.

It says that “the cup is just the beginning”, and the animated ad includes various families including a same-sex couple.

Leanne Fremar, the Starbucks executive creative director, told the Drum that the ad is “an ode to the years”.

It also encourages fans to create their own designs by colouring in white space on the standard Starbucks cups.

The ad says: “The holidays mean something different to everyone”.

As well as a lesbian couple, the ad includes a straight couple, a woman video chatting with elderly relatives and a father and daughter.

Starbucks has supported LGBT+ rights, and has in recent years supported Pride in London.

The brand has faced boycotts in recent years for supporting same-sex marriage and other LGBT issues in ad campaigns and directly.

Malaysia earlier this year joined Indonesia in an attempted boycott on the giant coffee chain over its support for LGBT rights.

In 2014, Starbucks collaborated with police in Seattle, to turn all its coffee shops in the city into ‘safe spaces’ for the victims of homophobic crime.

The chain also launched an ad campaign featuring two famed drag artists.

But in response, including to CEO Howard Schultz’s defence of same-sex marriage, a pastor claimed that Starbucks coffee is “flavoured with the semen of sodomites”.