Starbucks reportedly said in a statement Sunday that it tries "to create a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity," adding that the cup is meant to be a "blank canvas" that encourages "customers to tell their Christmas stories in their own way." Starbucks removed the usual array of decorative images such as Christmas trees and snowflakes that adorned the cups in previous holidays with a simple red cup with their green and white logo. which accused the coffee company of waging a "war on Christmas." Starbucks reportedly came under fire from a Christian group in the U.S. Starbucks, on Sunday, addressed criticism for removing symbols of the Christmas season from its cups, and making them just plain red with the company logo. Kind of like "Silent Night." But definitely, definitely not "Silent Night.A Starbucks cafe is seen in Los Angeles, California, on March 26, 2015. Or maybe the story is sort of a silent story. Fields added: "This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories." "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. The design "has told a story of the holidays by featuring symbols of the season from vintage ornaments and hand-drawn reindeer to modern vector-illustrated characters," according to the company.Įxcept this year, the story is, in a way, not a story. Holiday cups have been a tradition at Starbucks since 1997.
"The ombré creates a distinctive dimension, fluidity and weightedness." (For those in need of a definition of "ombré": "colors or tones that shade into each other - used especially of fabrics in which the color is graduated from light to dark," according to Merriam-Webster.) "We have anchored the design with the classic Starbucks holiday red that is bright and exciting," Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks vice president of design and content, said in a statement. Well, if you got technical, as the company did, the cups were "a bright poppy color on top that shades into a darker cranberry below." Indeed, save for the shade, the cups looked pretty much like regular Starbucks cups. "Starbucks will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world." "Creating a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity is one of the core values of Starbucks, and each year during the holidays the company aims to bring customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season," the company wrote in a news release. In many ways, the cups seemed designed to be unremarkable - unlike, say, the "Race Together" cups the company tried to push in the wake of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., earlier this year.
Starbucks certainly didn't seem to anticipate this furor when it released its holiday-themed cups last week - cups that, as the company made clear in a press release, are not really Christmas cups. "If you need a coffee chain to be your ambassador of Christ you need to re-examine your relationship w/God," one Twitter critic wrote. So they are leaving them blank so they can't offend anyone." You are offended that they don't say Merry Christmas, but Jewish people would be offended if it only said that, not Happy Hanukkah. "Starbucks is trying to remain neutral and be culturally sensitive to everyone by leaving them blank. "I normally like your post but not this one," one commenter wrote. And wouldn't sending more business to a company to make a point just result in higher profits for the allegedly offending company? However, some commenters - a few claiming to be current or former Starbucks employees - said that the company has never endorsed explicitly Christian messages.
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