Amidst the brewing controversy over Starbucks' lackluster holiday themed cups, fellow coffee giant Dunkin' Donuts released its own variety of Christmas cups, taking interested consumers by storm.
As Starbucks is still reeling over the backlash from Christian consumers over its plain red Christmas cups, Dunkin' Donuts unwittingly added fuel to the fire thanks to some consumers who deemed its holiday-themed cups as more appropriate.
The unadorned red cups Starbucks designed for this year's holiday season enraged religious conservatives who see the lack of elements like snowflakes or Christmas trees as a declaration of "war on Christmas."
Reasonably, Dunkin' Donuts' new holiday cups appear less lackluster, showing more Christmas spirit compared to Starbucks' cups. The company's 2015 holiday cups are mostly white with hints of green pines circling to form a Christmas wreath-like structure around the word "Joy," which was written in red.
The donut manufacturing merchant said that the design was not in any way released in response to Starbucks' design.
Raging about a mere holiday cup design may seem like a small matter, but for some Christians, the plain red cups designed by Starbucks appear like an attack that belongs to a national movement aiming to phase out Christian-themed decorations from the holiday season. Some may even see it as an attack on traditional Christian values.
While the number of Christians in the U.S. dropped sharply within the past few years, the Christian activist group has always been quite vocal. Several Christian consumers responded to the issue with a flurry of attacks on social media and even a national boycott on the coffee house tycoon.
The hashtags #ChristmasBUYcott and #MerryChristmasStarbucks grew so popular that presidential candidate Donald Trump made a comment on the issue.
"If I become president, we're all going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again," Trump, who in fact suggested a nationwide Starbucks boycott, said.
Faith Driven Consumer (FDC), a Christian faith activist group, released the Faith Equality Index that ranks more than 300 brands for compatibility with its faith. Starbucks scored a 27 out of 100 points while Dunkin' Donuts scored 42.
"For those Faith Driven Consumers and others dissatisfied with Starbucks' new presentation of Christmas as 'a blank canvas,' the #ChristmasBUYcott offers a positive and viable path forward," said FDC founder Chris Stone.
However, for majority of the Americans, the war on Christmas over coffee cups hardly matters, even among some of the faithful.
"It's much ado about nothing," said Mike Powell, the pastor at University Bible Church in Chubbuck. "Having reindeer and stockings on a cup doesn't represent the spirit of Christmas."
