Coffee for Democracy

I missed the commercial, but always up for free coffee...

A Vote, and Then a Cup of Joe
By Stuart Elliott
First there was Joe the Plumber. Then came “Joe the Biden,” as Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taken to calling himself on the campaign trail. And soon from Starbucks, Joe the Reward.
The Starbucks Coffee Company plans to start a campaign Saturday night that will offer a free cup of joe — a k a coffee — as a thank-you for voting. The campaign begins with a commercial scheduled during “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.
The commercial opens by asking, “What if we all cared enough to vote?” The spot ends with the offer — “If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee” — and these words: “You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.”
The offer is for drip coffee at Starbucks stores on Tuesday, Election Day. The campaign asks for proof of voting like the stickers given in many localities. In places without such measures, “it’ll be a little bit of the honor system,” a Starbucks spokesman, Vivek Varma, said.
The campaign is the first fruit of a new relationship between Starbucks and BBDO Worldwide in New York, part of the Omnicom Group. BBDO recently began working on projects for the Starbucks brand; the agency already creates campaigns for the beverages jointly sold by Starbucks Coffee and PepsiCo like DoubleShot and Frappucino.
Coffee is tied to voting in other promotions. The best-known may be the coffee-cup vote in 7-Eleven stores, this year known as “7-Election ’08.” Customers can buy coffee in cups that carry the name of Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama.
In the most recent results of the 7-Eleven poll, shown on a special Web site (7-election.com), Mr. Obama led Mr. McCain, 60 percent to 40 percent.