Starbucks has won the Glass Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The coffee chain won with I Am, a campaign that transformed a local Starbucks in Brazil into a registry office where transgender people could legally change their names for free.
The campaign, created by VMLY&R Brazil in São Paulo, was based on the insight that people in Brazil are often harassed for having a name on official documents that doesn’t reflect their identity. However, legally changing a name is an expensive and complicated process. In contrast, anyone who orders a drink at Starbucks has their elected name written on the cup without question.
By going to the Starbucks registry office, people immediately had their names changed and left with the new official documents in hand. The campaign resulted in a seven-times increase in daily legal name changes for the city of São Paulo.
