• by Danielle Oster , October 10, 2024

It’s no secret that teachers have a stressful job, as well as one that requires a good degree of caffeine to keep going throughout the school day – making the faculty lounge an important place of respite.

But those important spaces don’t always get the attention or resources they need -- so Coffee Mate decided to stage an intervention. The Nestlé brand enlisted rapper and actor Vince Staples (Netflix’s “The Vince Staples Show”) for an “Unbreak My Breakroom” campaign documenting the dramatic renovation of such spaces.

At George Washington Preparatory Senior High in Inglewood, California the initial subject of the content series, the situation was particularly untenable, with the crowded, outdated teacher’s lounge described by one teacher to describe as “sad.”

The campaign debuted today with a video introducing the school, the dire state of its faculty lounge, and introducing plans to transform the space into “a real coffee paradise.”

“‘Unbreak My Breakroom’ is an opportunity for Coffee Mate to celebrate [its] platform, ‘For The Love Of Coffee,’ and their over-the-top coffee fanaticism in the best way possible: by spreading coffee love and providing other people with the best coffee break,” Joaquin Salim and Mariana Oliveria, creative directors at WKNY, Coffee Mate’s agency partner on the campaign, said in a statement. “We chose teachers specifically, because their jobs require a lot of energy and dedication; they are true everyday heroes."

Coffee Mate is rolling out the campaign through native and video-first social content on channels including TikTok over the course of the next few days. The brand is also sharing all three campaign videos thus far on its brand YouTube channel.

Subsequent installments document a radical transformation of the sad break room, complete with Coffee Mate creamer and iced coffee on tap, as well as a Coffee Mate Iced Coffee fountain, and Nescafé coffee machine offering a variety of options. Coffee Mate also provided the school with a year’s apply of creamers.