Ariana Grande Cancels Starbucks!
Ariana Grande is one of the first celebrities to march on the street to join the mass protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
During the onset of the campaign, the "7 Rings" singer and her boyfriend Dalton Gomez joined thousands of demonstrators in Los Angeles to demand justice for the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis Police officers.
Following the nationwide movement, the multinational coffeehouse chain, Starbucks came under fire after it banned its employees from wearing pins, T-shirts or any accessories that support the Black Lives Matter campaign.
As cited by Buzzfeed, the $28.2 billion company released an internal memo saying that this could be "misunderstood and potentially incite violence."
Ariana Grande Unfollows Starbucks On Instagram
Due to Starbucks' offensive move, the Grammy Award winner took a stand against the business giant and unfollowed her once go-to coffeehouse chain on Instagram.
Aside from her savage move against the multi-billion-dollar company, the 26-year-old pop star promoted two different brands.
One is a fantasy-inspired cafe called Nimbus Coffee, as she took to Instagram Stories to share her iced beverage with a caption "'mmmmmmmm @nimbus_coffee_la" followed by a lightning emoji.
The second one is from an LA-based independent coffee shop Undergrind Cafe.
Prior to this, the "Rain on Me" hitmaker was once the company's brand ambassador back in March 2019. The pint-size singer promoted the Cloud Macchiato drink back then while sporting the famous green Starbucks apron on social media.
"You want it, we got it. You want it, we got it. You like our cloud? Gee thanks, just made it. #CloudMacchiato," the company replied to her post at the time
Starbucks Addresses Controversial Memo
As for Starbucks, they recently announced that they are now allowing employees to "wear Black Lives Matter t-shirts, pins, and name tags" after facing a massive backlash from the public and getting threats to boycott the brand.
With this, they released a statement through their official Twitter account stating that they have sent over 250,000 shirts to be distributed to different stores in support of the humanitarian campaign.
"Black Lives Matter. We continue to listen to our partners and communities and their desire to stand for justice together. The Starbucks Black Partner Network co-designed t-shirts with this graphic that will soon be sent to 250,000+ store partners," the statement read.
In addition, the company also said that their employees can support the Black Lives Matter movement by wearing their own shirts and accessories. They also put out a link redirecting to the brand's statement regarding the controversial memo.
"In response to this historic time, our store partners can also show support for the Black Lives Matter movement with their own t-shirts, pins, and name tags."
Ariana Grande has been vocal expressing her stance amid the ongoing campaign to fight racial oppression and police brutality towards the black community.
She also used her influence and encouraged her 190 million IG followers to "stay active, stay energized, keep sharing and keep learning." she wrote.
