Call to boycott Starbucks in India after new coffee ad promotes sex change acceptance

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.

A screenshot of the Starbucks campaign video with the hashtag #ItStartsWithYourName

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.

 

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CtoI News Desk
CtoI News Desk – CtoI

Singapore-headquartered online media company targeting Indian Diaspora across Singapore, US, UK, UAE and India. Connected to India covers developments around NRIs. Covers arts, political, sports, finance, entrepreneurship, business, movies, dramas, entertainment and other news for Indians living worldwide.

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