Stats Show Starbucks’ Red Cup Controversy Was Bulls**t And No One Was Offended
When Starbucks’ seasonal red cups debuted this fall, people flipped out and called them anti-Christmas because the cups were plain and had no Christmas-heavy design. Well, at least it seemed like people flipped out.
Daily Dot got some stats from a social media analytics firm called Spredfast, and the results showed that when the red cups debuted, there was “no evidence” that Christians were offended, or voraciously posting about how anti-religious the new plain cups were.
Essentially, no one cared.
Most of the fire was lit after a cell phone video was posted by some dude who looked like he just came from his beer-league softball game.
This guy was pretty much the only one that was pissed and started the “controversy.”
This dude, Joshua Feuerstein, was definitely upset by the red cups and posted a video stating such. After this video went viral, the Twittersphere blew up. People were then outraged by the supposed “outrage.”
Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus … SO I PRANKED THEM … and they HATE IT!!!! #shareUse #MERRYCHRISTMASSTARBUCKSFollow –> Joshua Feuerstein
Posted by Joshua Feuerstein on Thursday, November 5, 2015
More people were pissed off by the people who were supposedly pissed off.
The Feuerstein video was posted, then Twitter conversations about Starbucks shot up by 131 percent with over 861,000 Tweets. Suddenly, the Twitterverse found several snarky ways to attack conservatives and all the people who were supposedly anti-red cup.
#ItsJustACup pic.twitter.com/35aBbSVwyE
— Janet O’Dell (@JanetMODell) November 11, 2015
Lol #ItsJustACup pic.twitter.com/rkjPWTJT9g
— Kam Griffin (@kamgriffin13) November 11, 2015
Starbucks said everyone needs to chill.
Starbucks had to come out, explain and defend the cup design. It wasn’t a political statement. In fact, the plain red cups meant more space for creativity during their holiday cup contest.
One of five red cup contest winners: @sam_thrive360living.
Posted by Starbucks on Friday, November 20, 2015
Red cup contest entrant: @killerpeachy
Posted by Starbucks on Friday, November 20, 2015
Red cup contest entrant: @jacqmccull
Posted by Starbucks on Friday, November 20, 2015
Even Christians had enough of the “controversy.”
Probably seeing how ridiculous the red cup deal was getting, and knowing they didn’t actually care, some Christians chimed in on Twitter as well.
#ItsJustACup #JesusDontBelongInTheTrash #SavedByJesusNotCoffee #ImWithStarbucks I’m a Christian and not offended! pic.twitter.com/lrsVttDtCt
— Olga Levin (@1984_levin) November 11, 2015
Mercifully, everyone just stopped caring, because it was stupid.
At its core, the controversy was a battle between Feuerstein, apparenlty Donald Trump and people who were bored enough to add fuel to the fire. But then everyone realized that #itsjustacup.
#areyouserious #ItsJustACup pic.twitter.com/YUR3TDsYZ4
— Jen (@mjsawr) November 11, 2015
Sorry, not sorry.
#ItsJustACup pic.twitter.com/bqmi1cccHt
— Marcus Ellard (@ellard_af) November 11, 2015