People Are ‘Reverse Kickstarting’ In An Effort To Get Starbucks Out Of Trump Tower

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How do you stop a seemingly unstoppable candidate like Donald Trump? Some people might do this by voting for his opponent in November, while others have promised to do so in a more roundabout way. More specifically, people are promising to buy Starbucks gift cards in order to pressure the coffee brand to remove their store from Trump Tower.

According to BuzzFeed, this scheme comes from Buycott CEO Ivan Pardo, whose company is known for an app that tells you which genetically modified food brands to avoid. Recently, Pardo got the idea to try and influence companies not to support a certain person or cause with a crowdsourced incentive. Thus, the campaign to get Starbucks to vacate a Trump real estate property was born, with people pledging almost $70,000 so far in Starbucks gift cards in a “reverse Kickstarter” to get the company to leave Trump Tower.

The campaign is called Payola. Its website explains why this is a good idea:

Many loyal Starbucks customers will be disappointed to learn that Starbucks maintains a store inside Trump Towers in New York City. The money Starbucks gives Trump every month is used to fund the bigotry and racism that he broadcasts across the country. Macy’s, NBC-Universal, ESPN, Apple, and NASCAR have all cut ties with Trump, but Starbucks continues to hold out, forcing us to unwillingly fund Donald Trump’s hate with every latte bought.

It’s an interesting idea, with Pardo telling BuzzFeed that this is an experiment in a kind of activism that’s more effective than a petition, for instance. But for the presidential election, it’s hard to tell if there will be an immediate impact on Trump and his influence. After all, Starbucks isn’t the only company doing business with him. In the short term, the best way to protest against Trump and his bigotry would be to campaign against him. Then again, Starbucks itself seems pretty responsive to activism, raising wages and implementing other changes after a petition circulated against them accusing the brand of “killing morale.”

(Via BuzzFeed)

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