World Affairs Forum
- Sep 28, 2024
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Starbucks India launched a transgender acceptance ad campaign last week. It was met with considerable anger by customers in the Hindu-majority nation, who resented the coffee company for attempting to infuse American “woke” politics into Indian culture.
“At Starbucks, we love and accept you for who you are. Because being yourself means everything to us,” the political/coffee ad declared.
The ad campaign, launched under the hashtag #ItStartsWithYourName, shows an Indian couple accepting their male-to-female transgender child by saying the child had merely added a letter to the name, changing it from “Arpit” to “Arpita.” This seems like a massive underselling of what transsexualism actually entails, but Starbucks makes a big deal about names because its baristas write them on customers’ cups.
Starbucks occasionally writes things besides the names of its customers on cups. The company touched off an enormous backlash in March 2015 by urging its baristas to write racial politics slogans on cups and hold impromptu consciousness-raising sessions with customers who objected to having their mocha lattes politicized. The disastrous campaign was abandoned within a matter of weeks.
India’s WION News reported the campaign “faced severe backlash on Twitter” and gave some examples, including customers who said the company has lost their business forever:
Entire article here: Starbucks Transgender Ad Campaign Baffles, Outrages India
“At Starbucks, we love and accept you for who you are. Because being yourself means everything to us,” the political/coffee ad declared.
The ad campaign, launched under the hashtag #ItStartsWithYourName, shows an Indian couple accepting their male-to-female transgender child by saying the child had merely added a letter to the name, changing it from “Arpit” to “Arpita.” This seems like a massive underselling of what transsexualism actually entails, but Starbucks makes a big deal about names because its baristas write them on customers’ cups.
Starbucks occasionally writes things besides the names of its customers on cups. The company touched off an enormous backlash in March 2015 by urging its baristas to write racial politics slogans on cups and hold impromptu consciousness-raising sessions with customers who objected to having their mocha lattes politicized. The disastrous campaign was abandoned within a matter of weeks.
India’s WION News reported the campaign “faced severe backlash on Twitter” and gave some examples, including customers who said the company has lost their business forever:
Entire article here: Starbucks Transgender Ad Campaign Baffles, Outrages India
