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Journalism of Courage
Multinational coffee chain Starbucks is often trolled in India for its exorbitant prices. The coffee giant has recently come under netizens’ radar for promoting a humble cup of filtered coffee for Rs 290.
On Monday, a Twitter user named Adithya Venkatesan (@adadithya) shared a picture of a promotional Starbucks standee that showed a picture of a young man sharing a hot drink with an old woman, representing his grandmother. This picture was captioned, “Ajji approved filter coffee for Shivu. Starting at 290*. Starbucks #ItStartsWithYourName”.
While sharing this image Venkatesan wrote, “Dear Strbucks, there’s literally no ajji in god’s green earth who’ll approve a filter coffee for 290rs +taxes. 🙏🏻”.
This tweet soon raked up thousands of likes. People noted how elderly people in Indian families often do not approve of overpriced things. Echoing this sentiment, a Twitter user wrote, “I get very authentic and strong filter coffee near my office for ₹20. My ajji still thinks that ₹20 is too expensive when I can have at her house for free. She’d go berserk if she hears it cost ₹290+ tax at Starbucks and remove me from her will.”
Additionally, many people also noted how Starbucks uses the same image in different parts of India but changes the text to match the regional term for a grandmother. Making this observation, a Twitter user wrote, “North Indian style saree draping and calling her AJJI is the irony. StarBucks, have some local sensibilities…”.
