In a startling example of cultural imperialism, coffee colossus Starbucks is promoting transsexualism in India, with a slickly-produced 2-minute video ad.

First, Starbucks exported their crappy overpriced coffee model to India.

Now, they are exporting their Woke corporate ideology. pic.twitter.com/UhweRGRbAo

— Mythinformed (@MythinformedMKE) May 14, 2023

In the ad, we see a father sitting in a Starbucks making a cellphone call to his son, whose clearly male face appears as he calls, but with no answer. His wife counsels him to not be angry this time. In seconds, we see an attractive female version of the son entering the store, embracing his mother, and then awkwardly approaching the father, but with no embrace, just touching the old man on his back. As they sit, affecting music plays and he thanks his father for meeting him,

and remarks that it’s been years since they have seen each other, “…but you still mean the world to me.”

The father softens, stands up and suggests, “Coffee?” and walks up to the counter to order. Soon, the barrista announces the family name and all is well, the family healed. Starbucks: softening the heart of a parent upset that his son has been pretending to be a woman for years.

To be sure, Starbucks is a very upscale establishment in India, with its hundreds of stores in mostly high-end business and residential districts in major cities. I saw numbers of ithem there on a trip to India a couple of months ago, all of them prominently featuring the name of its 50/50 joint venture partner, the Tata Group:

Photo credit: Ekabhishek CC BY-SA 3.0

Tata is India’s largest conglomerate, with well over a hundred billion dollars in annual sales, and regarded as highly prestigious and capable. It has recently taken over Air India and is in the process of rescuing it from dismal mismanagement under government control, impressively upgrading its systems and management with capital participation and help from Singapore Airlines. Air India recently placed massive order for 470 new Boeing and Airbus jets for its expansion plans.

My assumption is that the ad is targeting India’s younger, urbanized, tech-savvy elite, who must be presumed to adapting their personal beliefs about sex identity to Western values, just as they indulge in Starbucks coffee, perceived as trendy, upscale, and modern.

The indigenous version of transvestitism in India is not perceived as trendy or prestigious. I experienced a gaggle of transvestites gathering around a taxi in which I was riding as it was stopped in New Delhi's horrendous traffic, tapping on the windows and demanding money to go away, just like the squeegee men who swipe a dirty rag across the windshields of cars stopped at traffic lights in big cities here. The taxi driver was angry at this, and it was obviously nothing new to him.

There already is some backlash against Starbucks, but because its product is mainly consumed by wealthy, young members of the elite, there may not be a big penalty to pay at the cash register. We'll see.

Photo credit: Twitter video screengrab