Starbucks Twitter Campaign Backfires!

Starbucks tried to start a holiday twitter campaign that would send around a little holiday cheer… but it backfired pretty badly.

They asked people to tweet out holiday happiness with the hashtag #SpreadTheCheer but all people did was use the hashtag to criticize Starbucks' low tax rates and bad labor policies in the UK.

The highly critical and often profanity laced tweets were even displayed on a giant screen at London's Natural History museum, where Starbucks sponsors their ice rink!

Starbucks said:

"As a family-friendly, responsible company we are committed to ensuring that our publicly displayed content is appropriate for all audiences and profanity filters have been in constant operation since the ice rink opened in November. We will continue to work closely with the twitter wall moderator to ensure that all content is consistently reviewed before published."

In the past 14 years, Starbucks has only paid about $14 million in taxes, even though they have 700 UK locations!

They are also cutting paid lunch breaks, sick leave and maternity benefits in the UK.

One tweet said:

"Starbucks' anti labor behaviors mean my good friend has to work three 12 hour shifts two days after giving birth. #spreadthecheer"

And that is one of the more tame tweets!

Starbucks seems like they really got what they deserve!

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[Image via Wikimedia Commons.]

Tags: backfire, campaign, coffee, starbucks, taxes, twitter, uk