Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO and potential “centrist independent” 2020 hopeful, caught the attention of people online over the weekend when a Facebook ad of his claimed a “majority of Americans are Americans.”
The ad, which began running last week, according to Facebook’s political ad tool, shows a woman with one side of her face colored blue and the other red, clearly representing Democrats and Republicans.
Underneath the woman, the text reads: “the majority of Americans aren’t Democrats or Republicans, the majority of Americans are Americans.”
The ad was flagged by NBC News over the weekend.
Schultz also ran a version of the ad with a man, his face similarly split by colors.
It appears that it is trying to hammer home Schultz’s centrist theme of his campaign, which has been widely mocked since its inception.
However, it also points out an obvious fact: all Americans are Americans, not just a “majority” of them.
That caught the attention of people.
https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/1119700863512129536
Hi @HowardSchultz I know I’ve said some mean things about you in the past but I feel like I have to tell you for your own good that “the majority of Americans are Americans” is the kind of slogan you end up with when your own consultants are mocking you behind your back.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 21, 2019
.@HowardSchultz This is incredibly embarrassing. Whoever is advising your comms is doing a terrible job and/or fleecing you. This is not leadership. This is peak waffling. https://t.co/X6bd8vw2h1
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) April 21, 2019
If the majority of Americans are Americans, @HowardSchultz, what are the minority of Americans? https://t.co/ZNa8NRF0pb
— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) April 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/travismockfler/status/1119681341405089792
https://twitter.com/IntownCartoon/status/1120293982498709506
https://twitter.com/BJMendelson/status/1120166306706350082
Wait. If the majority of Americans are Americans, what are the minority of Americans? 🤔 https://t.co/xnlZecIxDK
— Sarah Baicker (@sbbaicker) April 22, 2019
At least the “majority of Americans are Americans” ad wasn’t a post on Twitter, where Schultz can’t seem to escape being ratioed.
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