December 11 marks the 20th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol environmental accords, and to mark the occasion, 601 Starbucks branches in Japan will be turning down their lights from 7 to 8 p.m. next Monday, relying on candles to due to bulk of its cafes’ illumination duties.
While Starbucks isn’t enacting a chain-wide ban on electronics during the hour, the website for the event, dubbed “Nothing is Charming,” states that “Customers may be asked to refrain from using smartphones, PCs, and other electronic devices,” seemingly leaving the decision up to individual branches, but indirectly implying they’d like customers to comply with the suggestion of turning their gadgets off for 60 minutes.
Starbucks’ promotional video for the event
In somewhat of a contradiction, Starbucks is asking people to help share their experiences from the event on social media.
It’s not clear if Starbucks is making an exception to its “no electronics” request for cameras or if they’d prefer social media posts to be entirely text-based, just as it’s a little murky as to whether they want people to post during the event (a tricky maneuver when you’re not supposed to be using your phone or PC) or to wait until after it’s over and the lights come back on.
