Hand‑painted murals are experiencing a renaissance across Out‑of‑Home. Also Starbucks has long embraced its hand-drawn analogue charm - from barista doodles to the familiar red holiday cups. For its 2025 Christmas campaign, Drawn Together, the coffee giant scales this tradition into a full OoH and digital brand experience.
Starbucks: Hand‑Drawn Magic Hits Screens and Streets
The Starbucks brand always revolves around handcrafted beverages, familiar rituals and human interactions between baristas and guests. And yes, for (too) many years also on analogue menu boards. While menu boards in most of the 40.000 plus restaurants have been digitized today and many customers order by app, drinks are still prepared by hand and the Seattle coffee chain focuses back to be the third place besides home and work.
At the heart of the 2025 Christmas campaign is a simple idea: a barista’s sketch on a Starbucks cup springs to life and sets off across the coffeehouse in search of its counterpart. The animated short, set to The Proclaimers’ iconic “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, is suppose to be a warm reminder to find small moments of togetherness during the busiest time of the year.
A Sharpie Tradition Reimagined
Starbucks cups have always carried names scrawled in Sharpie, a quick heart, the occasional barista doodle. Imperfect, but personal.
To translate this language into a visual world, Starbucks partnered with Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary artist Geoff McFetridge, known for his playful minimalism and for film projects such as Where the Wild Things Are and Her. His simple line drawings set the tone for the holiday narrative.
According to Starbucks McFetridge’s doodle‑like animation reinforces a central message: holiday magic isn’t about perfection, but about small shared moments.
Hand‑Drawn Magic Goes Out of Home
The visual world extends well beyond screens. Starbucks has brought the minimalist, hand‑drawn aesthetic to OOH with oversized billboard placements in the UK – including Jamestown Road in London and The Hare & Hounds in Manchester. These sites feature real fairy lights to add warmth to early winter evenings and translate the holiday spirit into physical space.
Across selected EMEA markets Drawn Together also appears in digital and social formats, adapted for local audiences while retaining the playful Sharpie universe.
A Season of Small Gestures
With Drawn Together, Starbucks wants to highlight what differentiates its brand experience: handcrafted beverages, familiar rituals, and human interaction. The familiar red cups return as canvases for tiny artistic touches. Each line drawn in Sharpie becomes a symbol of the personal attention behind every order.
This year’s campaign speaks to a broader trend in brand communication: the resurgence of craft, authenticity, and hand‑made aesthetics in Out‑of‑Home environments. Starbucks turns a universal brand signature – the doodle on a cup – into an integrated storytelling that spans animation, billboards, and community‑focused messaging.
