SBUX Starbucks Corporation

By Nathalie Tadena 

Some consumers aren't so cheery about Starbucks' new holiday cups. And even more are frustrated with the controversy that has erupted over the simple red coffee cups.

A Facebook video posted by a Christian evangelist criticizing the lack of explicit holiday messaging on Starbucks' seasonal cups recently went viral. Since then, digital content engagement around Starbucks has more than doubled in the past five days, according to data from marketing technology company Amobee Brand Intelligence. And it hasn't all been good.

According to Amobee Brand Intelligence's data, there have been 40,455 tweets between Nov. 5 and noon eastern time on Nov. 9 around "Red Cup," the sarcastic hashtag #MerryChristmasStarbucks or "Starbucks Red Cup." Amobee's analyzes the content that users are interacting with across more than 600,000 sites on mobile, video, Web and social platforms.

Starbucks has featured holiday-themed coffee cups in stores since 1997. In years past, Starbucks' festive cups have come adorn with designs of snowflakes, ornaments, reindeer and other symbols often associated with Christmas. This year, however, Starbucks is opting for a more subtle look without any holiday images. When the company unveiled the red holiday cups in late October, the company described the design as " a two-toned ombre design, with a bright poppy color on top that shades into a darker cranberry below."

Evangelist Joshua Feuerstein posted a video on his Facebook page on Nov. 5 saying that Starbucks "wanted to take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups. That's why they're just plain red." Mr. Feuerstein said he "tricked" Starbucks into acknowledging Christmas by telling the Starbucks barista his name was "Merry Christmas" so the barista would write it on the cup, and he encouraged other customers to do the same. The video post has garnered more than 12.8 million views, more than 157,000 likes on Facebook and been shared more than 457,000 times.

With its holiday design this year, Starbucks said it took a cue from customers who have doodled on its cups and is encouraging customers to "create their own stories" on the cups' blank canvases.

"In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs," Starbucks vice president of design and content, Jeffrey Fields, said in a statement put out by the company on Sunday. "This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories."

In the statement, the company said it will continue to welcome customers "from all backgrounds and religions" into its stores.

According to Amobee's data, 67% of the Tweets around Starbucks' holiday cups have carried negative sentiment. However, only 17% of the negative sentiment tweets indicated frustration towards Starbucks. Most of the negative tweets expressed outrage over the backlash surrounding the cups, per Amobee's data. There were several comments such as "I can't roll my eyes any harder at this red cup Starbucks controversy," according to Amobee.

Among the tweets related to Starbucks' red cups over the last five days, 15 percent were positive and 19% were neutral.

Major controversies aren't new to the giant coffee chain. Earlier this year, the company was criticized for its initiative to stimulate the discussion of race, in which baristas were asked to write the words "Race Together" or place similar stickers on cups given to customers.

Write to Nathalie Tadena at nathalie.tadena@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2015 15:14 ET (20:14 GMT)

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