Starbucks Red Cups Angers Some Christians Over Messaging

When Starbucks decided to go for minimalism in its 2015 holiday cups, it didn’t expect to get so much controversy from some people.

Fortune reports that the holiday cups, which was launched by the coffee chain on November 1st, was absent of Christmas decor and was replaced with “a two-toned ombré design, with a bright poppy color on top that shades into a darker cranberry below.”

Arizona-based Christian evangelist Josua Feuerstein, was among the most incensed, and expressed his dislike for the 2015 Starbucks holiday cups on a Facebook video. USA Today said the video has since gone viral on Monday, hitting 12 million in views.

On late Sunday, Starbucks has since released a statement over its choice of design for its 2015 red cups and said, “[Starbucks] tries to create a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity. [The cup is meant to be a] blank canvas [that encourages] customers to tell their Christmas stories in their own way."