Inclusive ads have come a long way, from Bud Light’s 1993 “Ladies night” to 2023’s response to Dylan Mulvaney. So, when asked to a pick one campaign, recent favourites like “Ridiculous Reasons not to be Inclusive”, or Stonewalls “It’s Not Therapy, It’s Abuse” could have easily been my pick.
However, there is only one campaign that changed my whole career and that’s Starbucks “Every Name’s a Story”. The 2019 C4 Diversity Award’s winner follows a young trans person being deadnamed, and then ordering a Starbucks with their chosen name and shining with euphoria.
Why this ad? Well, I also came out in 2019.
In 2018, when I asked online how to ‘tell If I was trans’, one of the most common bits of advice was “go order a coffee with a new name and see how it feels”. By simply portraying a community truth, beautifully, it does the magical thing of putting a real human into your telly, which for the trans community – who are so often dehumanised into a debate – is desperately needed.
It started my journey to wanting to make more ads like it, and now I get to for a living, as my real self.
