You may have seen flyers promoting “Starbucks Dreamer Day” filling your social media feeds. According to the flyers circulating online, Starbucks is offering a 40 percent discount on purchases from the coffee company for undocumented immigrants. Let’s be clear. They are false and, according to Salon, were created by right-wing trolls.
A fake Starbucks advertisement targeting undocumented immigrants is spreading around social media.
Hey #dreamers! @starbucks is celebrating #borderfreecoffee day! 8/11 is 40% off for illegals!
— illiberal (@Illiberalality) August 7, 2017
The offer first started to show up on August 2, promising “undocumented Americans” a discount when they used the promo code “UNAFRAID.”
The false ads, using the hashtag #BorderFreeCoffee, appear to have originated from a 4Chan thread titled “Politically Incorrect.”
Great news! Starbucks is offering a 40% discount to all Undocumented Immigrants on August 11. Very progressive. Let your friends know! ? pic.twitter.com/51bq68I0Ka
— Coat Confiscator⚘⚑ (@punishedcoat) August 4, 2017
The posters, created in both English and Spanish, appear to have been created by people hoping to get undocumented individuals into Starbucks stores and have them detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One user expressly suggested that people spread the posters widely to lure in large numbers of undocumented individuals so ICE could detain as many as possible in a series of raids. The thread is filled with derogatory terms for Jews, Latinos, African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.
Based on the thread, the poster went through several revisions before landing on one they thought would fool the public.
CREDIT: 4Chan
“How about we meme ‘Undocumented Immigrant Day’ at Starbucks into existence? Announce free coffee for all illegals on a certain date,” one user wrote. “August 11? 11 looks like II (for Illegal Immigrant). I’m open to suggestions there. Name a liberal place for all illegals to go at once and demand free stuff. Thoughts?”
John Kelly, Starbucks senior vice president of global communications, told The Associated Press the promotion is “One hundred percent fake.”
CREDIT: Credit: starbucks.com
Starbucks has also taken to social media to decry the fake promotion. They are replying to individual users to let them know the campaign is not real.
CREDIT: @Starbucks / Twitter
That’s just seven of the responses Starbucks has put out to people about the advertisement.
And other people are helping Starbucks spread the word about this fake ad.
Starbucks isn't having a"Dreamers" day w discounts for immigrants! What is this a sick ploy to round up illegal immigrants n 1 place for ICE
— viti (@kenvitiello) August 7, 2017
