Question

Identify a company that has been in the media in the last 12 months due to a controversy. Find a communication from the company and identify a paragraph that has at least 3 sentences. Evaluate the effectiveness of the paragraph at three levels found in Chapter 5: overall paragraph structure, sentence effectiveness, and the effectiveness of six words of your choosing. Write your evaluation citing specific elements from the chapter.

Answer 1

Starbucks came up with red cups that have stirred up a lot of controversy with the critics accusing the company of waging a war against Christians. The controversy started when Starbucks unveiled new red cups to signify the approaching holiday season. During the previous years, the Christmas cups have featured several winter-themed designs ranging from a reindeer to decorative ornaments. However, this year Starbucks changed the design to a simplistic cup design that was ombre from bright red to dark cranberry. Due to this controversy, Starbucks was mentioned more than 474,000 times on social media in one week with “red cup” more than 61,000 mentions in the same week. The several critics accused Starbucks of failing to say Merry Christmas to Christians and that by failing to bring the red cups with the season messages and greetings, the critics assumed that Starbucks was doing so because they hate Christians and Jesus. The main critic was Joshua Feuerstein, a former pastor who refers himself as a social media personality. Joshua posted a video on Facebook that went viral. In this video, Joshua criticized Starbucks for removing Christmas from their cups saying their reason for doing that was that they hated Jesus.

In response, Starbucks said that they used the cup designs in the past to tell stories. However, in this year, they wanted to usher the holidays with a pure design that welcomed all their stories. Starbucks also said that the cup design was not giving a policy on greeting customers and that they encouraged the creation of a welcoming environment to the delight all its clients who desire to purchase their services. The response paragraph used by Starbucks was able to clarify that they were not in any way against the Christians celebrating their holiday and that the design was not banning the Christmas greetings. The paragraph structure was effective in communicating the message. The sentences used are correct and fit in composing the response. The words “design was not giving a policy on greeting customers” were valid to answer the critics and express Starbuck’s stand on the issue.