Starbucks’ red cups inspire outcry online

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 10, 2015

For some reason, Starbucks keeps trying to coax its customers to share a bit more over their coffee cups.

And this year, its annual red holiday cup became fodder for a little less charitable sharing. Devoid of the seasonal snowflakes, ornaments and reindeer of yore, this year’s plain red cup stirred a bit of noise on social media. Perhaps that was part of the company’s intent to generate a little buzz, however extreme some of the instant reviews sounded.

“Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus,” Joshua Feuerstein, who described himself as an evangelist and Internet and social media personality, wrote on his Facebook page Thursday.

His post was cited repeatedly on all sides of the cup issue including by those who found his objections overly frothy.

One person posted on Twitter that “maybe if the Starbucks Xmas folks want to further their cause they could take their latte money & donate it to a soup kitchen or something.”

Still, the protests were so loud Starbucks sought to clarify its decision to remove the holiday symbols. In a statement on its website Sunday, the company said it took its cue from “customers who have been doodling designs on cups for years.”

“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.

Jeffrey Fields,the vice president for design and content at Starbucks, said in a statement the company “wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”