FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 20, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)

"Starbucks supported same-sex marriage, saw their support from Republicans dwindle, missed sales projections, and watched the company lose $4.4 billion overnight and over $10 billion from their 2012 high." —Brian Brown, NOM president—

Washington, D.C.—Today, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) announced that their protest of Starbucks is achieving results. "Starbucks supported same-sex marriage, saw their support from Republicans dwindle, missed sales projections, and watched the company lose $4.4 billion overnight and over $10 billion from their 2012 high," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "While executives of publicly traded companies have had a wonderful time claiming that not supporting same-sex marriage hurts their employee recruitment and retention efforts, we now have a case study in how alienating millions of customers can directly affect the bottom line of a public company and damage shareholder value."

On Wednesday, March, 21, 2012, Starbucks Chairman and CEO told shareholder Thomas Strobhar, in response to Strobhar's question of whether or not the corporate decision to endorse a controversial social matter was prudent, that Starbucks was going to measure this situation by whether it was in any way dilutive to shareholder value, and that to date it had not damaged their business and that the decision was in the best interest of the entire company. Over $10 billion dollars in shareholder value later it is no wonder that Starbucks turned down same-sex marriage advocates who initially sponsored a Starbucks Appreciation Day and responds to customer inquiries about their corporate position on same-sex marriage with a statement that Starbucks has never donated any actual money to same-sex marriage advocates in Washington State where they endorsed same-sex marriage.

"True success in this protest effort will not be achieved until Starbucks steps back from the debate over the meaning of marriage. The fact is that Starbucks has alienated millions of customers worldwide, has seen their sales fall behind even their own conservative estimates, and has watched their stock value drop as investors and shareholders have gotten cold feet. This should give pause to any publicly traded company that is looking to advocate against the traditional definition of marriage," continued Brown. "Stock prices and sales are subject to a myriad of factors, but business leaders and voters would do well to consider the experience of Starbucks, and the millions of people who voted in support of traditional marriage at Chick-Fil-A on August 1st with their pocketbooks, when they are being told by gay marriage proponents that support of same-sex marriage will be good for their bottom line and the business community in general."

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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Jen Campbell (x145), [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).

To learn more about DumpStarbucks, visit www.dumpstarbucks.com.