Issue and Opponent: Dietary racism is a social construct that is built by a racial majority that assumes the food the majority consumes affects other races and cultures in the same way. Dietary racism is often an unconscious bias. Starbucks is an easier target. It is particularly vulnerable because it pretends to be progressive.
Dilemma Action: Specifically, a fake Starbucks announcement made by Switch4Good announced that in the push for dietary equity, the corporation would switch to putting an extra charge on dairy milk. Along with this announcement the promise of a “Justice Cup” would serve as the first initiative of a newly created Starbucks Cares and the company’s efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, Starbucks denied that they were eliminating their upcharge on their plant-based milk. This caused several media outlets to reprint both the announcement and the denial. After everything was revealed Switch4Good released educational videos that pertained to dietary racism. Switch4Good supported the campaign with fun activities such as making fake vouchers discounting the non-dairy upcharge. They also made phone calls to Starbucks customer service asking them to drop their upcharge. Due to this, Starbucks was seen as ridiculous because of the extra charge.
Outcome: Starbucks did not react negatively but instead Starbucks in the UK dropped the non-dairy upcharge 3 weeks after the campaign was launched. Switch4Good received accolades and credit for Starbucks’ policy change which many media outlets gave them credit for. Switch4Good showed no fear while doing this movement. They also reached millions of people to support the Justice Cup campaign along with adding dietary racism to the national lexicon.