If you’re an avid watcher of Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show, then you already know that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz stopped by the studio yesterday to have a sit down with Trevor Noah. But if, like me, your devotion has been on a slow decline since Jon Stewart left the desk, then this may be news to you. You’re the ones I’m talking to.
Guess what! Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was on the Daily Show last night!
The interview begins with Noah giving Schultz a pretty thorough ribbing, incorrectly spelling his name as “Hayward Schlitz” on his mug and suggesting that perhaps the orangeness of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice lattes have contributed to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s unexpected popularity. Noah even brought up the Race Together initiative, Starbucks’ widely panned attempt to stimulate conversation on race relations, with Noah stating that it went “horribly wrong.”
But Schultz took it all in stride, which I guess you kinda have to when you go on a comedy show to promote something. And the Starbucks CEO was there to talk about the company’s new original content Upstanders, “an original collection of short stories, films and podcasts sharing the experiences of Upstanders – ordinary people doing extraordinary things to create positive change in their communities,” according to the Starbucks website.
Included in Upstanders content already available are stories about wounded vets overcoming adversity, a young woman trying to solve the problem of food waste, and a church in Nashville welcoming a mosque being built across the street. The last example an Eater article has already dubbed as “kind of racist,” to which I have to say, “really?” Should a congregation overcoming latent xenophobia be considered extraordinary? No. But with Islamophobia running rampant in America, it kind of is. Let them tell their sweet story; it’s one worth hearing. Stop trollin’ for clicks. /rant
Aaaaaaanyway, the interview shows the softer side of the mega-corporation, and Schultz comes across as a thoughtful, sincere individual trying to use his platform to make the world a better place, with mixed results thus far. It’s definitely worth a watch, even if you are the sort of person that would never be caught dead in the belly of the big green beast.
The full interview can be seen on Comedy Central’s website here, and the complete Upstanders catalog can be found here.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via Comedy Central
