Starbucks rip off the Girl Effect

14 Nov

At The Do Lectures this year I was introduced to a video entitled the Girl Effect. It’s now a very short video that I can’t watch without a tear in my eye.  It’s incredibly powerful and makes me want to do something to help. I owe Duke Stump a huge amount for introducing me to it.

So it was a bit strange to see a carbon copy used by Starbucks on a UK TV advert this evening. It was supposedly for a good cause, but I couldn’t help but have mixed feelings about a mega-corp nicking something creative that was purely for the benefit of others.

What do you think? Should they have taken 30 seconds to develop a new concept of their own? Or am I just being a bit “over-protective” of something that’s not important because as long as good stuff comes out of it it’s not important?

 

 

 

6 Responses to “Starbucks rip off the Girl Effect”

  1. Ben 17 November, 2009 at 8:46 pm #

    I don’t think they’d ripped off the ‘Girl effect’ video.

    They’ve just used a very similar effect in the video. And if they’re promoting the same end goal then let’s not complain. :-)

    Reply
  2. Neil Cocker 18 November, 2009 at 1:46 am #

    Very true, Ben.

    I think it’s good that they’re doing something, but I’m always cautious that they do it in a cynical fashion (purely to gain brownie points and karma).

    But then, as you say, if the end result is the same then maybe it doesn’t matter?

    Reply
  3. Carl Morris 19 November, 2009 at 1:51 pm #

    There’s some discussion of this on various blogs, e.g.

    http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/article/771/did-starbucks-borrow-a-charitys-video-campaign

    Reply
  4. Louise Browne 22 November, 2009 at 9:44 pm #

    I think they have ripped it off, but perhaps that will help to promote the original, so I don’t think it will do any harm, and hopefully the end result will be more good.

    Reply
  5. dave&kitty 27 November, 2009 at 1:27 pm #

    the starbucks isn’t as typographically adventurous as the first one – the nature of mass media advertising constrains legibility etc etc

    but isn’t this all very similar to the nike adverts of about 10 years ago – the just do it ones? I cant find an example at the moment but if/when I do I’ll post a link…

    the sentiments of the GIRL piece though are spot on…

    Reply
  6. Neil Cocker 27 November, 2009 at 8:09 pm #

    Thanks Dave. I don’t remember those ads. Would love to see them if you do manage to find an example.

    Reply

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