Starbucks’ holiday cups catching heat
Coffee maker Starbucks has come under fire from some Christians who say the company is underselling Jesus on this year’s holiday cups.
Some say Jesus Christ healed the sick and died to redeem humankind. Little is said about his views on the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Still, secular coffee maker Starbucks has come under fire from some Christians who say the company is underselling Jesus on its this year’s holiday cups. The problem? Political correctness, according to one evangelical.
“I think in the age of political correctness we become so open-minded our brains have literally fallen out of our head,” Joshua Feuerstein said in a widely viewed anti-Starbucks rant on Facebook titled “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus.” “Do you realize that Starbucks wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups? That’s why they’re just plain red.”
Feuerstein, an Arizonabased evangelist and “social media personality,” according to his website, had a plan. He didn’t want a boycott. He wanted a movement.
“It’s not just about a cup,” he explained in an email. “The cup is symbolic of a larger war against Christianity in this country. The policemen of political correctness have demanded that the silent majority bend its knee to a vocal minority.”
Feuerstein’s message was quickly embraced by many. Posted on Thursday, his video had been viewed more than 11 million times by early Monday.
Some supported the message.
“Love it Joshua,” one commenter wrote. “AMEN AMEN. I will ALWAYS KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS.”
However, some commenters — a few claiming to be current or former Starbucks employees — said that the company has never endorsed explicitly Christian messages.“I normally like your post but not this one,” one commenter wrote. “Starbucks is trying to remain neutral and be culturally sensitive to everyone by leaving them blank. You are offended that they don’t say Merry Christmas, but Jewish people would be offended if it only said that, not Happy Hanukkah. So they are leaving them blank so they can’t offend anyone.”
Starbucks certainly didn’t seem to anticipate this furor when it released its red holiday-themed cups last week — cups that, as the company made clear in a news release, are not really Christmas cups. In many ways, the cups seemed designed to be unremarkable — unlike, say, the “Race Together” cups the company tried to push in the wake of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., earlier this year.
Holiday cups have been a tradition at Starbucks since 1997. The design “has told a story of the holidays by featuring symbols of the season from vintage ornaments and hand-drawn reindeer to modern vector-illustrated characters,” according to the company.
“We have anchored the design with the classic Starbucks holiday red that is bright and exciting,” Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of design and content, said in a statement.
“This year’s design is another way Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas,” the company said. Fields added: “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”
A writer for the conservative website Breitbart wasn’t buying it.
“You can see what’s going on here,” Raheem Kassam wrote, offering a detailed rundown of the history of Starbucks Christmas cups. “More open? You mean, you’re trying not to ‘offend’ anyone. Frankly, the only thing that can redeem them from this whitewashing of Christmas is to print Bible verses on their cups next year.”