During the holidays, I always look forward to getting a bag of Starbucks’ “Holiday Blend” in my Christmas stocking. I know ahead of time my daughter is the one gifting me, but that’s OK because we both love Starbucks. So I was taken aback when I read that some fool on the Internet had created a furor over the company’s coffee cup.
A guy by the name of Joshua Feuerstein, a self-proclaimed social media personality, at least that’s what Fox News is calling him, posted a video rant on Facebook last week, claiming that Starbucks removed Christ and Christmas off its new red holiday cup.
“I think in the age of political correctness we become so open-minded our brains have literally fallen out of our head,” Feuerstein said on Facebook in a rant titled “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus.” As of Monday morning, according to news reports, there were over 12 million views. All I saw when I looked on his page were 478,000 shares, a far cry from 12 million.
Check that out, now. They hate Jesus? Who is “they?” I could add that I think Feuerstein is one of those evangelicals Dr. Carson is trying to get on his team. This fool probably believes the pyramids were used as storehouses, too.
The rant goes on, “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.”
But after looking on this guy’s page, I have come to the conclusion he is a freaking radical, and someone people need to avoid. It’s obvious from his posts that he is down on the media, Obama, Muslims in America and just about anything else he doesn’t think fits his definition of Christian values. And let me be the first to say he has a right to his opinion, but so do I.
While Starbucks choose this year’s holiday season cup to embrace the simplicity of the season, the cup’s minimalist design was questioned by a lot of customers because snowflakes or other simple holiday designs were missing. On their website, though, Starbucks says, “It was designed to give people a piece of calm.”
Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of Design & Content says, “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.”
Well, Starbucks may have wanted to create an atmosphere of peace and calm, but the feedback from some people wasn’t too nice. Many questioned the company’s attempt at “political correctness” as going too far. Many wanted to know why “Merry Christmas” wasn’t included, or at least some jingle bells or holiday trees. Others said, “Give it a rest.”
And that is what I am inclined to say, too: “Good grief, people, it’s a darned cup, and nothing more.” If you really want to know what people are thinking about the cup, CNBC has a poll on their website, asking people what they think of the cup’s design. Out of 4,302 votes, 60 percent say they don’t give a d***, one way or the other.
