Starbucks launched its Starbucks PSL campaign for the season on 25 August, pairing Off Campus star Belmont Cameli with Martha Stewart in a promo commercial that promptly ignited a frenzy across social media. The Pumpkin Spice Latte, one of the chain’s most enduring seasonal offerings, has rarely generated quite this level of online noise.
How the Starbucks PSL campaign played out on screen
The commercial opens with Martha Stewart clutching a hot PSL, topped with whipped cream and a dusting of pumpkin spice. ‘It smells like my house in the fall,’ she says. ‘It’s perfect.’ Belmont Cameli then appears holding his own iced version, shoots her a look, and delivers the line: ‘You would get it hot.’ Her response, measured and straight-faced, is simply: ‘Should I know him?’
It is the kind of exchange that does not need much amplification. Within hours of the video going live on Instagram, fans had filled the comments section with a volume of enthusiasm that the chain’s marketing team could scarcely have scripted better.
Fan reaction and Martha Stewart’s own verdict
The responses ranged from the theatrical to the outright comedic. ‘DOES HE COUNT AS A TOPPING?’ wrote one viewer. ‘I feel like a dog hearing all my favorite words,’ offered another. A third summed it up more bluntly: ‘You had me at Pumpkin Spice. Then enters Martha and I’m like, GENIUS. Then you layer in Belmont and I DIIIIED.’ Several comments zeroed in on a particular moment in the clip. ‘The wink AND the smile? You’re killing us!’ one fan wrote.
Perhaps the most-shared response, though, came from Stewart herself. Commenting under the Instagram post, she wrote: ‘Wow! The actor I was interacting with while we shot the commercial was a different guy, a “stand-in.” This guy is cuter!!!!’ The admission that she had filmed the commercial opposite someone else entirely, and had only seen the finished version alongside the rest of the public, added an unexpected layer to the whole episode and earned its own wave of replies.
Cameli’s Off Campus profile has been rising steadily, and the Starbucks PSL campaign appears to have introduced him to a considerably wider audience in the space of a single 30-second clip. ‘OK Starbucks if you’re targeting me specifically just say that!!! 😂❤️❤️❤️,’ wrote one viewer, capturing a sentiment that ran through much of the commentary. Another drew a pointed comparison: ‘Watch out @snoopdogg … @belmontcameli has entered the chat.’
What the campaign says about seasonal marketing
The Pumpkin Spice Latte has existed as a cultural reference point in its own right for years, well beyond its role as a coffee drink. Building a campaign around that existing cultural weight, then pairing two figures with very different but equally devoted followings, is a straightforward enough strategy on paper. The execution here, particularly Stewart’s deadpan delivery and the subsequent real-time candour about her stand-in, gave the whole thing a life that a more polished, controlled campaign might not have generated.
The stand-in detail, disclosed by Stewart herself in the comments, is what separated this from a standard seasonal push. It confirmed, without any prompting from the brand, that the chemistry on screen was essentially a surprise to one of its two leads. Whether intentional or not, that is an unusual piece of behind-the-scenes honesty, and it landed accordingly.
The PSL returned to menus on 25 August, and if early social media volume is any measure, the Starbucks PSL campaign has done precisely what it set out to.