Starbucks Coffee is seeing what the Oscar ceremony may witness tomorrow night in Hollywood; bad ratings. Last month Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he would hire 10,000 Muslim “refugees” in response to President Donald Trump’s temporary travel moratorium in January.
Schultz was an early and outspoken critic of President Trump’s temporary hold on immigration from a list of seven terror-torn countries flagged by the Obama administration. Not unlike the probability of actors voicing their unsolicited political diatribe at the Oscar ceremony Sunday night, Schultz considers his opinion of extreme value to the American public.
However, since the “company,” (code word for Schultz) pledged to hire the mythical 10,000 Muslim refugees over the next five years, the Starbucks brand has lost its luster with customers paying to drink the coffee. The aftermath has been instantaneous.
In a YouGov survey reported by Google, perception levels of the Starbucks brand name fell by an incredible two-thirds since its January announcement. The survey measured how potential customers feel about a company’s brand and asked if they have “heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative.”
The survey found that before the company’s January “refugees” announcement, 30% of respondents said they would consider spending money at Starbucks. However, that number fell to 24 percent within seven days.
It appears that the mood of the country is changing rapidly since the election of Donald Trump. Whereas the “progressive” personalities on the left have taken to the airwaves to provide their unsolicited opinions of the political landscape, average Americans have grown tired of their endless contentiousness.
The result of ultra-liberal Schultz’s diatribe against Donald Trump has sparked a #BoycottStarbucks movement on Twitter and brought condemnation from coast to coast. It will be interesting to check the ratings for Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony Monday afternoon. If the ratings goes as many experts predict, the loss of audience numbers may relegate next year’s Academy Awards to cable television.
The capitalistic reality of lost advertising sponsorship spells less revenue for the broadcasting network. Something the unsolicited social opinions from “activist” Hollywood elitists could care less about. It is equivalent to cutting off your nose to spite your face. But to the narcissistic individuals who love the sound of their own voice, it is too good to pass up no matter the consequences.
