And just like that, your iced coffee is racist now. Yes, in the latest episode of âEverything Offends Someone,â Dunkinâ is under fire forâbrace yourselfâmentioning genetics in an ad. Thatâs right. An ad promoting aâŚ
NEW YORK, NEW YORK â OCTOBER 26: A Dunkinâ storefront sign is seen on October 26, 2020 in New York City. The Dunkinâ Brands, the parent company of the Dunkinâ and Baskin Robbins chains, is in negotiations to sell itself to Inspire Brand, a private equity-backed company. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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And just like that, your iced coffee is racist now.
Yes, in the latest episode of âEverything Offends Someone,â Dunkinâ is under fire forâbrace yourselfâmentioning genetics in an ad. Thatâs right. An ad promoting a fruity summer drink starring a tan actor has somehow been swept into the same outrage tsunami thatâs engulfing American Eagle for daring to acknowledge that people have, you know, inherited traits.
What started as a light-hearted campaign featuring The Summer I Turned Pretty actor Gavin Casalegnoâpromoting the new Golden Hour Refresher by nodding to his âgoldenâ tanâhas now been accused of⌠weâre not even kidding here⌠co-signing eugenics.
Because apparently, admiring someoneâs skin tone is one step away from endorsing a master race, according to Twitterâs PhD-in-outrage crowd.
The American Eagle ad, the Dunkinâ Donuts ad, and whatever next one comes after them will be no surprise when you truly accept that we live in a fascist country now and the messaging from the overculture will be more overtly fascist as well. And please donât let anyone gaslight you about it.
And this backlash comes hot on the heels of the firestorm surrounding American Eagleâs campaign with Sydney Sweeney. Her crime? Saying in a denim ad that âgenes are passed down from parents to offspring.â Yes, that very basic biological statementâsomething youâd find in a fifth-grade science textbookâis now being read as a dog whistle for white supremacy.
Because she has blonde hair and blue eyes. And that, folks, is apparently all it takes to get accused of promoting eugenics in 2025.
And now DunkinââDunkinâ, the most unassuming of coffee chains, the place known more for sprinkles and sausage croissants than secret political messagesâis being dragged because someone said the word âgeneticsâ while showing a tan actor drinking a peach drink. Thatâs it. Thatâs the whole controversy.
But donât worry, social media sleuths are here to tell you what you should really be offended by. Because when they see âgolden skin,â they donât just see a summer glowâthey see a conspiracy. A carefully coded message pushing some âidealizedâ look.
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Somewhere along the way, celebrating natural traits like eye color, tan lines, orâheaven forbidâbone structure has become cultural contraband.
And youâve got to wonder: is there any way to market anything anymore without tripping over the tangled web of progressive purity tests?
Say âgeneticsâ? Thatâs racist.
Say âgoldenâ? Thatâs colorism.
Mention âheritageâ? Colonialism.
Show someone looking attractive in jeans? Thatâs body-shaming unless they tick every intersectional checkbox and declare their pronouns in the opening frame.
Meanwhile, normal people are just trying to drink their coffee and maybe enjoy an ad that doesnât feel like a hostage video to activist Twitter.
But this is where we are.
Advertising canât just be clever or catchy anymore. It has to be cleared by an unofficial tribunal of professionally offended ideologues who spend their days combing through 30-second clips for any hint of privilege, prejudice, or problematic phrasing.
The irony? These same folks constantly preach about representationâuntil the person being represented is attractive, successful, and doesnât apologize for it. Then suddenly, itâs a crisis.
So here we are, staring at a Dunkinâ ad and wondering how long before coffee shops are forced to release diversity statements for every latte. Because nothing says âprogressâ like censoring biology, vilifying beauty, and turning iced beverages into battle lines in a never-ending culture war.
