Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Backlash of the Day: Starbucks’ Race Together Campaign Mocked on Twitter
To encourage discussions about race relations in the United States, Starbucks has asked its baristas to write #RaceTogether on coffee cups and engage in serious conversations with customers.
Turns out that’s the last thing people a bunch of disgruntled people want first thing in the morning while waiting for their first jolt of caffeine.
CEO Howard Schultz describes the initiative as “an opportunity to begin to re-examine how we can create a more empathetic and inclusive society – one conversation at a time.”
He organized an internal meeting back in December in which employees shared stories and discussed all the recent shootings and events which inspired protests and riots from Ferguson to New York.
The company held similar forums around the country over the past few months, and now they’ve decided to extend this initiative out to their customers through the “Race Together” initiative.
Despite all the good intentions behind the campaign, it has turned into somewhat of a joke on Twitter.
After the backlash, Starbucks’ senior vice president of communications, Corey duBrowa, eventually deleted his Twitter account, which is not a good sign.
“I was personally attacked through my Twitter account around midnight last night and the tweets represented a distraction from the respectful conversation we are trying to start around Race Together,” he told Business Insider .
Here are some of the responses on Twitter that Starbucks likely did not see coming:
Paula Deen Has a Mobile Game Coming Out, and Every Shot in This Promo Video is a Waking Nightmare
Presumably it's just going to be Bejeweled with butter and bacon grease. That's the idea, right?
Jesse Pinkman Approves of This Found Footage About Puppies
I thought I was mature enough to not laugh at this video. I was wrong.
Warning: A dog gives birth in this video in case you don't want to see that.
Things Get Awkward When a Performer Takes a Grinder to Her Metal-Clad Nethers on Live Television
The news crew begging to cut the footage early in the background is a nice touch!
The Only Movie You Need to Watch for St. Patrick's Day
"Leprechaun 2" where Mack Daddy O'Nassas (Ice-T) smokes the greenest of the grass with a leprechaun, what else do you even need in a movie?
Revenge of the Day: Cat Gets Back at Guitar Player for Kicking Him Out of Chair
This cat is just trying to take a nap in a chair, when his owner forcibly kicks him out.
The sunglasses-wearing, guitar-playing abuser appears to be recording some terrible video of himself playing his terrible music.
But he doesn’t get very far in the song before his world comes crashing down around him.
Poetic justice.
Destruction of the Day: Wind Tears Scaffolding Off Building in Oregon
Thanks to some high winds and a shoddy construction job, a giant chunk of scaffolding came crashing down from a building this week in Portland, Oregon.
Onlookers watched and filmed in fascination as the debris teetered back and forth before eventually falling to the street.
No one was injured in the accident, but one car apparently took a lot of damage.
Photo of the Day: Internet Thinks Australian News Anchor’s Neckline Looks Like a Penis
It’ only been a few days since a pilot drew a penis in the sky in Florida, and another phallic phenomenon has already taken over the Internet.
The above screenshot of Network Ten anchor Natarsha Belling was posted to UNILAD’s Facebook page this past weekend, and it has since blown up and been shared on a number of different news sites around the world.
It was also trending on Facebook.
“Once you see it, you cannot unsee it…” UNILAD writes in the caption.
Unfortunate for her, but true. You will never not see a penis on Belling’s neckline.
No response yet from her on Twitter.
So far 2015 has been a good year for viral outfits. Which will you be wearing this Halloween? The white and gold dress, blue and black dress or penis jacket?
Distraction of the Day: Someone Turned Google Autocomplete Into a Family Feud-Style Game
Say goodbye to productivity, because this game just took over your workday/life.
Whenever you start typing a search into Google, the search engine tries to predict what it thinks you are looking for based on previous searches.
The results are often absurd and can make you question your faith in humanity.
So a guy named Justin Hook has harnessed the power of autocomplete and turned it into an online game called “Google Feud.”
You just pick a category (Culture, People, Names, Questions), and the site chooses a question/topic. The top 10 very real results from Google’s API are posted to the board which you then have to guess.
Just like “Family Feud” you get just 3 strikes before the game ends.
“Beware, certain results may be offensive and/or incomprehensible,” Hook writes on the page.
The game’s received a lot of attention since it launched, so much so that it apparently crashed their servers.