He Who Takes Offence When None is Intended is a Fool, and Drinks in Starbucks

It’s that time of year again; the time to take offence to Starbucks Christmas cups.

This seasonal campaign has over the years become a revered date – especially since it signals the beginning of Starbucks limited edition festive drinks. My name is Sasha, I am White, I am a Woman (a capital letter, like God), and I love pumpkin spiced lattes. But it’s also become synonymous with a social backlash.

If you haven't been offended by Starbucks doing absolutely nothing wrong, are you really a millennial?

With the explosion of social media and the ease of expressing uncensored opinions, we’re living in an age of fetishised free-speech. Desperate to have an opinion, desperate for a statement worthy of posting, desperate for likes. For example, John Lewis saw a tyrant of abuse from people upset that ‘Santa’ didn’t construct the trampoline in their Christmas ad this year:

Maybe like Bryan, and hundreds of others, you thought it was disgraceful that John Lewis completely disregarded the risks of bovine tuberculosis:

Or, like Joe, you thought ‘how dare John Lewis advertise to me in an advert’:

After all, the brand spent ￡7m on an entire campaign for your entertainment purposes, right? Not to make some money, right?

All of this offence taken from one brand… from one advert – and it isn’t even an exhausted list. It’s not hard to imagine brands thinking what’s the point?

Is it possible not to offend someone anymore?

It came as no surprise to me last year when Starbucks decided to strip their festive cups of any design to avoid causing offence (since Christmas used to be a religious holiday, remember, Jesus and that?). Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks VP of Design & Content, said in a statement:

‘In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs/ this year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories’.

You know, maybe removing religious connotations was to acknowledge the diverse and differing beliefs of the 7,000 customers that Starbucks serve every single minute?

Nope, sorry Starbucks, that’s wrong too. Joshua Feuerstein, a pastor, posted a video to Facebook criticising Starbucks for removing ‘Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus.’

The 2015 red cup controversy was huge. After releasing the all-red cups there were 9.2 million news stories on the internet and even President Donald Trump proposed a ‘boycott on Starbucks’.

Learning from their mistake, Starbucks released a pre-season cup covered in a hand-drawn pattern. The colour green was chosen as it’s the most neutral colour (and also in-line with their branding). The green cup is adorned with a mosaic of more than a hundred people drawn in one continuous line, to signify unity. One might say it was necessary after such a politically catastrophic year?

Nope, sorry Starbucks, you’re wrong again.

So, what have we learnt from this cacophony of coffee cock-ups? Starbucks: it’s a brand we love to hate....apart from the fact it’s not just Starbucks. Every day a new brand is facing a backlash.

The Starbucks green cups were released on November 1st and garnered such a tirade that it was covered on The Late Show, one of the most viewed programmes on American TV. Do you know what else happened on November 1st? Here are just a few topics covered in the news:

-         The FBI began probing Clinton’s emails;

-         Trump avoided paying tens of millions in taxes via a loophole that was later outlawed;

-         Senator Richard Burr joked about assassinating Hillary Clinton;

-         A U.S Airstrike in Mosul killed 8 civilians, including 3 children;

-         Award-winning journalists in Turkey were arrested on terrorism charges;

-         13 miners were killed in a mining exposing in China;

-         A Colonial pipeline exploded in Alabama killing 1 and hospitalising 5 others;

-         The Australian PM proposed a lifetime ban on asylum seekers arriving by boat;

-         Lebanon elected a new President.

But you probably didn’t get to the end of that list because you were moaning to your barista about the shade of red on your Christmas cup.

So, Starbucks: a brand we love to hate? Or, 2016: a society that loves to hate? 

#Marketing #Advertising #ChristmasAd #ChristmasMarketing #ChristmasAdvertising