We all remember the cup fiasco from Starbucks last winter. How could we forget? People were outraged at the simple red ombré design Starbucks released, sparking an incredible outburst of opinionated social media posts that included hurt feelings, extremist views, and an accusation that Starbucks was waging a war on Christmas.
As a Starbucks partner (aka employee in Starbucks jargon) I got to enjoy our customer’s feedback from behind the espresso machine. I admit, the jokes and rude comments were annoying, but eventually people stopped talking about the lack of holiday design on the cup.
Starbucks is not going to let what happened last year happen again and neither should we. Do we really not have more productive things to spend our time on? Here is what is really happening on the Starbucks 2016 cup scene.
Recently, Starbucks released a surprise “green cup.” With the green cup’s release, Starbucks’ send out a tweet that said “Friends, baristas, and customers drawn in one continuous line—reminding us we're all connected.” Immediately, people on social media jumped the gun leaving Twitter and Facebook with a round of negative comments about how they can’t believe Starbucks changed the classic Christmas red cup to green.
Huffington Post even released an article that was titled “People Are Raging Mad That Starbucks’ Newest Cups Aren’t Red,” already fueling the media’s same old trend of sending the public into a frenzy. More popular news journals and magazines like Cosmopolitan, New York Post, and E! are also posting similar articles about the cups, but they are releasing information that is not correct.
Not to brag, but since I work at Starbucks, I know things that you don’t know. This green cup is actually just a temporary teaser cup that was released advocating for unity. They are calling it the “unity cup,” which is green, symbolizing the color of the logo and apron of our Starbucks partners. The multiple faces, all drawn in one continuous stroke, show how we must stand connected and together, which is a pretty bold and ironic statement with the recent election and the division caused by the cups last year.
But have no fear, the red cup will be here. They are packed away in the “no peaking” boxes. Fortunately someone accidentally opened one of the boxes and I was able to see the highly anticipated red cup for this holiday season. Let me tell you, the cup is beautiful! No one will be disappointed. The design is cute, festive, and fun. Think snowflakes and ugly Christmas sweaters.
So why is Starbucks doing this? It’s a big slap in the face to everyone who had a Starbucks write “Merry Christmas” on their coffee last year. Personally, I believed Starbucks released the green cup to trick people on social media in to lashing out with incorrect assumptions about the red cups, only to release the red cups as a surprise to all of the haters.
Red Cup, green cup, yellow cup, blue cup; the point is, Starbucks is one of the most festive companies around when it comes to the holidays. People will still be coming for coffee; no matter the cup color.
To prove to you that Starbucks isn’t waging a war on Christmas, I almost took a picture of the unopened box for sake of this article, but I don’t want to ruin the red cup reveal! Let’s stand together with our coffees in hand and enjoy this holiday season.
