Starbucks Coffee Debuts LGBT Commercial Starring 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 6 Cast Members
Starbucks, named one of the Gay-Friendly Companies in the United States by "Your Tango" in 2013, has released its first ever LGBT-centric commercial.
OUTtv, a Canadian television station, teamed up with Starbucks to produce the laugh-out-loud advertisement that is earning praise around the nation from critics and LGBT media around the globe.
Starring two up-and-coming drag queen superstars from the sixth season of Logo TV's "RuPaul's Drag Race," winner Bianca Del Rio and runner-up Adore Delano, the commercial also displays the sassy banter that has made the show a cult sensation from the divas.
Titled "Coffee Frenemies," the commercial was shot in June while the two made appearances and performed at WorldPride in Toronto. Footage of that event was also featured in the clip. In the clip, the line-cutting Delano (former "American Idol" semifinalist Danny Noriega), a go-getting celebrity, is running on the clock and uses her manners to move ahead in line.
Although Del Rio may have assisted Delano throughout their time on Season 6 of the reality show, it became quite clear that she would not allow her protégé to take her away from her skinny latte. Sidesplitting banter ensues.
Starbucks publicly announced its support of gay marriage in 2012. While the National Organization for Marriage launched a boycott against the global coffeehouse chain, which offers benefits for same-sex partners, others saw Starbucks' decision as more of a business move especially when the company joined Microsoft and Nike in declaring support of a Washington State bill that would make The Evergreen State the seventh to legalize gay marriage at the time.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks chief executive, stood his ground on this issue,
"It is not an economic decision to me," he said. "The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people. We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity. Of all kinds."
In 2011, the Seattle-based coffee chain was among a group of 70 business industries and organizations that filed a brief in federal court deviating from the Defense of Marriage Act, a law placing restrictions on the definition of marriage as union between a man and a woman, according to NY Daily News.
"If you feel respectfully that you can get a higher return [than] the 38 percent you got last year, it's a free country," Schultz said during the annual shareholders meeting according to CNN Money. "You could sell your shares at Starbucks and buy shares in other companies."
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