Starbucks’ polar bear holiday cookies spark social media backlash

Customers are sharing photos of Starbucks' polar bear-shaped sugar cookies on social media, claiming the bear's red icing scarf resembles dripping blood. Credit: Flickr / Bunches and Bits
Starbucks can’t seem to catch a break this holiday season.
Customers are sharing photos of the coffee chain’s discontinued polar bear-shaped sugar cookies on social media, claiming the bear’s red icing scarf resembles dripping blood.
“Not sure why Starbucks think Polar Bears with their throats slit are ‘christmassy,’ ” U.S. Magazine says a Twitter user wrote.
According to Buzzfeed, a photo of the bear cookies, last released in 2010, was posted to Imgur, an online image-sharing community, on Dec. 9 and received more than 2.7 million views in two days, sparking the cookie debate.
“These polar bear cookies at Starbucks look like they’ve all had their throats slit,” the anonymous Imgur user wrote.
It’s not the first time this season that Starbucks has received an outcry on social media from angry customers.
When Starbucks revealed its stark red holiday coffee cups in November, people tweeted photos of their cups with “Merry Christmas” written on them in permanent marker in protest.
“Someone at Starbucks really hates Christmas, and polar bears,” Twitter user @emma_sandoe tweeted.
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