Starbucks chief Howard Schultz warned Clinton campaign her 'stale' approach couldn't reach millennials

  • Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has advised Hillary Clinton's senior aides since at least July 2015
  • Advice email to Clinton counselor Cheryl Mills is part of the latest Wikileaks dump
  • Email was forwarded to campaign chairman John Podesta, whose account was hacked
  • Schultz warned about a 'stale' Clinton campaign rollout that lacked 'freshness and transparency'  

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warned a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide last year that its 'stale' approach would make it hard for Americans to embrace her as presidential.

He told Cheryl Mills in July 2015 that he was watching 'an old style start to the campaign' that had 'very few signs of the kind of freshness and transparency that the American people (especially millennials) will need to trust and ultimately elect' Clinton.

The frank advice is part of a trove of messages hacked from campaign chairman John Podesta's email account and released Tuesday by the Wikileaks website.

It presaged Clinton's trouble connecting in the Democratic primary season with young voters, the overwhelming majority of whom backed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warned Hillary Clinton's campaign when it was in its infancy that its 'branding' was all wrong and risked losing millennial voters form the start

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz warned Hillary Clinton's campaign when it was in its infancy that its 'branding' was all wrong and risked losing millennial voters form the start

Emails bouncing among senior Clinton (pictured) staffers were swept up in a hack on campaign chairman John Podesta's email account

Emails bouncing among senior Clinton (pictured) staffers were swept up in a hack on campaign chairman John Podesta's email account

Mills shared Schultz's message with senior aides Huma Abedin, Jennifer Palmieri and Jake Sullivan, along with campaign manager Robby Mook and Podesta. She marked it 'confidential' and added the acronym FYSA – For Your Situational Awareness.'

It was Podesta's copy that was leaked Tuesday.

Abedin replied that Schultz likely sent the email directly to Clinton because 'he has so much regular contact with her.'

Schultz's advice reads like a laundry list of advice the Clinton machine ignored until late in her campaign, long after she dispatched Sanders and won the Democratic nomination.

'She desperately needs the people on her side,' he wrote. 'And, although it's early, the imprinting process has begun... And, I don't like how it feels.'

Cheryl Mills (left) shared Schultz' advice with other aides including long-time Clinton right-hand-woman Huma Abedin (right)

Building Clinton's 'brand' – 'and she is a brand,' Schultz wrote – would require 'a vision for the future that is steeped in truth and authenticity and builds an enduring emotional connection with the voters.'

Clinton has been plagued with poll numbers that question her honesty and trustworthiness. 

'The campaign feels "yesterday." It's too packaged and prescribed,' Schultz added. 'The American people are longing for truth and someone to believe in.'

'The answer is not in the polls, it's in her heart and her conscience. When she begins to truly trust herself and find her inner voice, and has the courage and conviction to share it with the world, things will change and change rapidly.' 

Despite offering early counsel, Schultz withheld his endorsement until after the Democratic primary was over.

He announced only last month that he was backing her, telling CNN: 'I think it's obvious Hillary Clinton needs to be the next president.'

In February, as Donald Trump's momentum surged on the Republican side of the presidential race, Schultz told Fortune magazine that the contest had become 'disrespectful' and full of 'bombastic attacks' 

' I think it's turned into something none of us has ever seen before, which I would label as almost a circus,' the coffee mogul said.

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