Starbucks, the international coffee chain, has been attracting a lot of anger online from Indians after its latest commercial encouraged people to embrace sex change. In retaliation, people opposed to the ad have started the #BoycottStarbucks hashtag and have told the brand not to spread its “woke” ideas in India.
The campaign with the hashtag #ItStartsWithYourName shows a transgender woman meeting her parents and winning over her upset father — at the end of their emotional reconciliation, he says, “You are still my child; only a letter has been added to your name.” The Indian trans woman in the ad has changed her name from “Arpit” to “Arpita”.
Inoffensive though it is, the ad with a social message has incensed many people. Adverse comments on Twitter include the following:
@thephukdi: “go sell drinks to wokes in America and leave India for god’s sake.”
@MNageshwarRaoIPS: “Are you @StarbucksIndia in India to do business OR to promote wokeism nonsense?”
@Starboy2079: “Starbucks… Coffee is their other product… Main product of Starbucks is wokeness.”
Queer people or people who support sex change have fought back, saying it is a “sweet ad” and a “lovely ad”, and some of them made cheeky remarks in their Twitter posts saying that those abusing the ad probably did not like or could not buy Starbucks coffee.