In previous years, Starbucks has released holiday cups with decorations such as snowflakes, ornaments and reindeer. This year, their holiday cup is solid red with no other images.
To some people, this change wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. To others, however, it was a bigger deal.
The New York Times reports that Joshua Feuerstein, a self-described evengelist, Internet and social media personality, wrote on his Facebook, “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus.”
He uploaded a video explaining that he went into Starbucks with a Jesus shirt and with a gun and told them that his name was “Merry Christmas” so they would write that on his cup. He wants people to do the same and start a movement with the hashtag #MerryChristmasStarbucks.
Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus … SO I PRANKED THEM … and they HATE IT!!!! #shareUse #MERRYCHRISTMASSTARBUCKSFollow –> Joshua Feuerstein
Posted by Joshua Feuerstein on Thursday, November 5, 2015
As extreme this may sound, the video got nearly 200,000 likes and half a million shares. However, as the Atlantic has reported, most of the people using the #MerryChristmasStarbucks hashtag are using it to make fun of the campaign.
There is a lot of backlash surrounding the idea that Starbucks did not do this to offend Christians.
The New York Times reports that “Jeffrey Fields, the vice president for design and content at Starbucks, said in a statement that the company ‘wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.'”
Starbucks’s new design is simply a quieter version of their old one.
What do you think of the new cups, collegiettes?