Honestly that last picture, I laughed so much haha!

Former Spice Girl Geri Horner misses out on Starbucks ad campaign in row over what to call its Halloween coffee

 

It was the perfect recipe to spice up Starbucks’s best-selling Halloween-themed pumpkin latte.

 

But the coffee chain’s plans to make Geri Horner the face of its popular autumnal drink are said to have been left in tatters following a dispute over whether or not it should be named after the former Ginger Spice.

 

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Ms Horner, 52, had spent ten months in negotiations with Starbucks to front the campaign, which was due to launch within weeks and would have earned her an estimated six-figure sum.

 

But sources at the US firm say that, at the 11th hour, the Spice Girl wanted to name the coffee the ‘Geri Latte’ which it refused to do, prompting her to pull out.

 

Last night, Ms Horner declined to comment about the end of the deal but friends of the star denied she had asked for the drink to be named after her.

 

Meanwhile, Starbucks insiders insist this was the case.

 

There is also a suggestion that her husband, Christian Horner, the Red Bull F1 boss, is ‘no fan’ of the coffee firm.

 

A source at the chain said: ‘Talks were ongoing for ages. It was a seriously lucrative deal which would have seen Geri’s face all over Starbucks through the month of October. It was major.

 

‘The negotiations began last year. It was on course to be a goer.

 

‘Then there was a disagreement over what it would be named and whether it would stay as a simple pumpkin spice latte. That’s when things began to fall apart.

 

‘It’s a huge blow for Starbucks. Halloween is a massive commercial opportunity for them, so the bosses are furious at it all crumbling at the last minute. It was perfect that Ginger Spice was going to be the face of Starbucks.’

 

Had Ms Horner signed the deal, she would have followed American star Oprah Winfrey, who in 2014 launched the ‘Oprah Chai Tea’ with the chain. Starbucks started developing the pumpkin spice latte in January 2003 following the successful introduction of winter seasonal drinks, such as the peppermint mocha and eggnog latte.

 

Starbucks’s Peter Dukes said at its launch that ‘developers realised there was something special around the pumpkin flavour, especially since there wasn’t anything around pumpkin at the time’.

 

The company experimented with different combinations and ratios of pumpkin to spice, ultimately deciding on a recipe containing no pumpkin.

 

According to a CNN report in August 2022, Starbucks has sold more than 600 million cups of the drink since its launch.

 

The singer, who married Mr Horner in 2014, is said to be worth around £41million and in her heyday as a Spice Girl she endorsed global brands such as Pepsi, Kodak and Walkers Crisps.

 

In recent years F1 drivers have had their own Starbucks cups, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo both agreeing for drawings of themselves to appear on the brand’s merchandise.

 

Ms Horner declined to comment on the deal yesterday.

 

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How random!!

 

 

I mean f*** Starbucks (rotten, exploitative organisation that funds Israel's genocide and makes terrible coffee) but what is more interesting here for me is these two aspects:

 

1) Geri refusing to associate herself with the Ginger Spice moniker in such a high profile company

2) Geri working/meeting for months on a project only to pull out in the most fickle manner AGAIN

 

It really shows a lot about her character and where she is at with her Spice Girls days...

Hold up, the article doesn’t mention her not wanting to be associated with “Ginger Spice”! :thinking: Where’s that from from?

Hold up, the article doesn’t mention her not wanting to be associated with “Ginger Spice”! :thinking: Where’s that from from?

 

The association is that she is known as Ginger Spice, thus it makes sense for her to front a spice-related popular drink. She wanted it to be framed around Geri Latte instead, distancing herself from the moniker and only her Geri name. It is too obvious a decision/distancing

I don't believe that her wanting the drink to be called Geri Latte (for the time she'd have been the face of Starbucks) indicates a refusal to be associated with the Ginger Spice nickname? It appears that Starbucks didn't intend to dedicate the drink to her full stop, instead preferring to keep it as a pumpkin spice latte (i.e. they weren't going to lean into Ginger/Ginger Spice as a name for the product either).

 

I'm sure Geri/her team must have understood that the overall gimmick of her association in the campaign would be "Spice Girl promotes a spice latte", and that she was willing to lean into that for the adverts/marketing. Otherwise, surely she'd have dismissed the proposal straight away and not get this deep into the negotation process.

 

My reading of this is that the issue isn't her wanting to distance herself away from being known as a Spice Girl/Ginger Spice. Just that in addition to her involvement in this campaign, she wanted the drink to be named after her actual name - but Starbucks didn't want this to be about renaming a product.

Know how I know the Geri/Starbucks story isn't real? A Halloween-themed ad campaign would have required her to dress in fall colors. And...well. We know six-figures still wouldn't be enough to get her in anything other than white.

 

Though. It's Halloween. I guess she could be a ghost...

 

But. No. Really. I'm not buying it. It's all 'sources say'. I'm not seeing any outlets I'd consider reputable reporting it. I also just don't think any of this makes sense. Why would it only be Geri? Wouldn't it make more sense for at least a four-piece Spice Girls to front a pumpkin spice campaign? It's Starbucks. They could afford it. Also. Starbucks is a US-based brand...and all four of the other girls have done better at maintaining a profile here than Geri has. Geri's a part of 90s pop culture, but she...by herself...wouldn't mean much to a US audience in 2024. Starbucks partners in the past with Oprah and Taylor Swift, and now they're going with solo Geri? I guess you could argue she could be used in specific global markets. But. A year of negotiations and six figures for just Geri wouldn't be worth it to Starbucks. This story is shenanigans, I tell you!

The issue to me is not about refusing to be associated with Ginger Latte but to ask Starbucks to change their coffee to Geri Latte?? That’s bold.

Know how I know the Geri/Starbucks story isn't real? A Halloween-themed ad campaign would have required her to dress in fall colors. And...well. We know six-figures still wouldn't be enough to get her in anything other than white.

 

Though. It's Halloween. I guess she could be a ghost...

 

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

The issue to me is not about refusing to be associated with Ginger Latte but to ask Starbucks to change their coffee to Geri Latte?? That’s bold.

 

 

It wasn't ginger latte, it was Pumpkin Spice. Also Geri has always been bold it's what got her to where she is, the utter lack of shame :lol:

A Geri song leaked called The Last Man Standing.

The link is on Spice Circle FB page.

Rosie Frost: Ice on Fire by Geri Halliwell is released on 10 April.

Geri has kindly agreed to sign bookplates and Postcards which are available to order now!

Get your orders in now! Pre-Order Closes soon!

All orders will count towards Geris first week sales, hopefully gaining her a Times Best Seller in the UK.

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Signed postcards and Bookplates by the lovely @GeriHalliwell which can be yours if you pre-order Rosie Frost:Ice On Fire NOW!!

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Orders close on 3rd April 2025

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