A new ad from Starbucks India features a transgender individual reuniting with a skeptical father and a supportive mother at a coffee shop, prompting a number of Twitter users to slam the campaign since its release May 9.
The transgender individual in the ad, who identifies as a woman, has a birth name of Arpit, but now identifies as Arpita. The father appears uncomfortable with his child’s transition, and still has his child’s phone number saved in his phone under a male name and with a male picture.
“Listen, don’t get angry this time,” the mother says.
When the father gets up to buy coffee for his mother and child, he places the order under the name “Arpita.”
First, Starbucks exported their crappy overpriced coffee model to India.
Now, they are exporting their Woke corporate ideology. pic.twitter.com/UhweRGRbAo
— Mythinformed (@MythinformedMKE) May 14, 2023
“For me, you are still my kid,” the father says. “Only a letter has got added to your name.”
The video ends with the hashtag “it starts with your name.”
“Your name defines who you are – whether it’s Arpit or Arpita,” Starbucks’s India branch posted on Twitter. “At Starbucks, we love and accept you for who you are. Because being yourself means everything to us.” (RELATED: Psychotherapist Stella O’Malley Says Trans Mental Health ‘Does Not Seem To Be Improved’ By Sex Changes)
The ad campaign sparked backlash on social media, with Twitter users criticizing the coffee corporation of “exporting their woke corporate ideology.”
“I am never entering Starbucks again. I have no issues with transgender. But I have serious issues with corporates imposing their propaganda,” one Twitter user who is seemingly located in India said.
Another user accused the company of “going full Bud Light,” referring to the negative response the beer company faced after using a transgender TikTok personality to promote their band.
“From this it is clear that America’s biggest exports are deranged sexual perversions,” another said.