A Starbucks ad in India featuring a trans actress that promotes inclusivity has ignited a brewing firestorm against the coffee giant for going “full Bud Light.”
The 2-minute video shows a supportive mother and wary father meeting their daughter, played by transgender Indian actress Siya, at a Starbucks.
The daddy has not seen his child since her name was Arpit, before her transition.
The daddy is visibly fighting accepting his daughter when he gets as much as order coffee.
The barista then declares the drinks are ready for “Arpita,” a more feminine spin on the daughter’s pre-transition name and a sign that the daddy is working towards acceptance.
“For me, you might be still my kid. Only a letter has been added to your name,” he says to his daughter.
Starbucks India tweeted the ad last week with the caption: “Your name defines who you might be — whether it’s Arpit or Arpita. At Starbucks, we love and accept you for who you might be. Because being yourself means all the pieces to us.”
The video has been viewed greater than 9 million times — with many replies echoing the outcry over Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney, including calls for a boycott and references to the tag line “Go woke, go broke.”
Starbucks India tweeted a pro-trans ad that’s a part of its “It Starts With Your Name” campaign, and it immediately caught the eye of social media users still fired up over Bud Light’s controversy.@StarbucksIndia
“Starbucks facing a backlash in India after going full Bud Light. If saturating the market with a mediocre US coffee brand wasn’t bad enough, now they’re bringing their woke corporate culture to the Sub-Continent,” political commentator Rukshan Fernando tweeted in response to the clip.
“For me, it’s never again Starbucks,” one other tweeted, while others said they’ll be bringing their business to rival Tim Hortons.
One other angered Twitter user wrote: “Go sell drinks to wokes in America and leave India.”
The daddy within the two-minute has not seen his child since her name was Arpit, before her transition, and expresses support by ordering coffee under his daughter’s more feminine name, Arpita.
A spokesman for Starbucks told The Post the ad was being received well in India, and emphasized that that is removed from the coffee chain’s first display of showing it “as a warm and inclusive place.”
The spokesman also pointed to Starbucks’ “I Am” project, which supports trans employees with legal and psychological well-being support to amend the names on their birth certificates.
“At Starbucks, we unequivocally support the LGBTQIA2+ community as a part of our global mission to nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection. Our campaign in India, #ItStartsWithYourName, shows how Tata Starbucks is committed to creating people of all backgrounds and identities feel welcome, helping our communities and partners (employees) show up as their authentic selves each day.
“We are going to proceed to make use of our voice to advocate for greater understanding on the importance of inclusion and variety across the communities we serve world wide,” Starbucks told The Post in an email statement.
Nevertheless, Twitter user Krishna called such efforts a “deliberate strategy” to erode “cultural identity in our current era.”
“The pace at which this unsettling phenomenon unfolds is cause for real alarm,” he added, seemingly referencing the influx of recent ads featuring trans influencers and models which have sparked a kind of culture war.
The controversy hit full boil in April when trans social media star Mulvaney shared an Instagram post of a personalised Bud Light can the beer brand sent her to have fun “365 Days of Girlhood.”
The beer’s conservative consumers were immediately outraged.
They lashed out on the Anheuser-Busch-made beer, causing sales to plunge.
Adidas was also called out this week after launching its “Pride 2023” collection, which featured models who seemed to be male showing off a women’s swimsuit.
The colourful one-piece, called the “Pride Swimsuit” for $70, was listed on Adidas’ site under the “women’s” section, but was being modeled by an apparently male model who also was also displaying a noticeable bulge within the crotch area.
It was unclear if the model identifies as a male or is transgender.
Outraged social media users didn’t appear to care, citing violations to women’s rights and slamming the German apparel company for listing the suit under “women’s” somewhat than in its own LGBTQ+ section.
Among the many voices was former NCAA swim star and girls’s rights activist Riley Gaines.
“Women’s swimsuits aren’t accessorized with a bulge,” she tweeted.
Gaines continued: “I don’t understand why corporations are voluntarily doing this to themselves. They might have not less than said the suit is ‘unisex,’ but they didn’t since it’s about erasing women. Ever wondered why we hardly see this go the opposite way?”
Sports Illustrated was also attacked by Megyn Kelly for putting transgender pop star Kim Petras on the quilt of the magazine’s annual Swimsuit edition.
Kelly said the move can be a turnoff to young boys.
A Twitter user angered by the ad referenced the influx of pro-trans messages in mainstream ads, and called it “erosion of cultural identity.”
“My understanding of the quilt of the Sports Illustrated magazine is it has one major purpose and that’s for 15-year-old boys to spend some alone time with it in the toilet,” Kelly said during Thursday’s episode of her SiriusXM podcast “The Megyn Kelly Show.”
Petras, the German-born singer-songwriter who has gender reassignment surgery at age 16, was one in all 4 celebrities chosen for SI Swimsuit’s rite-of-passage edition, which hits newsstands Monday.
The opposite cover stars include actress Megan Fox, TV host Brooks Nader and 81-year-old Martha Stewart.
