It's the latest Starbucks advertising campaign: they are handing out free subway passes and movie tickets in the hope that all the niceness and holiday cheer will be contagious:
Starting today Starbucks is surprising its customers with free gifts. The catch is Starbucks wants consumers to pass on their benevolence by performing a good deed for another person, say, to hold open a door or buy someone a cup of coffee. With each deed, the recipient is handed a "cheer pass," a numbered card that serves as a tracking device for the effort's viral component.
It's actually a brilliant idea. Why? Because being nice makes us feel good. Literally. As researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reported in a recent PNAS paper, being charitable triggers the dopamine reward pathway, the same neural circuit that is engaged by sex, drugs and rock and roll. In other words, the warm glow that accompanies altruistic acts has a biochemical basis: charity and cocaine have a lot in common.
I have no doubt that Starbucks is fully aware that being nice feels nice. For them, that dopamine rush is just one more way of cementing customer loyalty. If they had their way, every dopamine rush we have - from music to coffee to sugar to charity - would be indelibly associated with the Starbucks logo. As if peddling addictive caffeinated drinks wasn't enough...
very nice