Wheeling Away from Dunkin’

For years, I pushed my power wheelchair to its max speed multiple times a week eager to enjoy the caramel flavored caffeine and diversity showcased in my local Dunkin’. This is the coffee shop where the Ethiopian American baristas help me unwrap my straws before I even ask for assistance and where the Indian American owner livens up the atmosphere by playing Bollywood music in the back.

On a deeply personal note, this is also the shop where my late father would buy us sour cream doughnuts before church. This past Father’s Day, I marked the occasion by going to the same store and getting a doughnut in loving tribute to him.

It’s safe to say that until a few days ago, being a regular at my local Dunkin’ has been a personal joy for me. My love of Dunkin’, however, has evaporated in the summer heat and it has nothing to do with the kind staff at my local shop and everything to do with the company’s corporate advertising decisions.

Earlier this month Dunkin’ released an ad with blond-haired blue-eyed actor Gavin Casalegno claiming that his genetics, golden tan, and consumption of a Dunkin’s beverage is why he’s “king of summer.”

This ad joins with American Eagle’s scandalous campaign in trying to normalize eugenics style language. According to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), “Eugenics is the scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations.” The NHGRI website goes onto to explain that eugenics ideology is often used to promote racist, Xenophobic, and ableist policies and discrimination.

As a person with disabilities who has studied history, I’m gonna go further and say that it’s well documented that governments have used eugenics ideology to justify the murder of minorities during the holocaust. This ideology is also behind the forced institutionalization and sterilization of people with disabilities in America. If you think that all these horrors are behind us, it’s worth noting the 31 states and the District of Columbia still have a legislation permitting the forced sterilization of people with disabilities. In addition, numerous news outlets are reporting that women held in immigration detention centers are also being forcibly sterilized.

The popularizing of eugenics through dog whistle advertising is terrifying. Protesting companies like Dunkin’ is not a liberal overreaction as claimed by White House staffers on social media. It’s a moral reaction to dangerous and un-American messaging.

Columbia University psychologist Dr. Lena Petrova writes in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, “When brands casually use ‘genetics’ while highlighting idealized white features—especially amid current tensions—they ignore how this language echoes eugenics propaganda. It’s either gross negligence or a calculated risk for engagement.”

Dunkin’ has wildly miscalculated with its advertising campaign. Before this campaign, the company’s memorable tagline was “America Runs on Dunkin’.” The company’s choice to include eugenics in its ad is making me, a formally fiercely loyal customer, bitterly run my wheelchair in the opposite direction.

Sources Referenced

“The ad campaign that launched a thousand critiques: Sydney Sweeney's jeans”: https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5487286/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-explained-why-controversy-racist-eugenics-trump-bathwater-ad-klein-statement

“Deviancy, Dependency, and Disability: The Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration”: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3958&context=dlj

“Dunkin’ Donuts ‘Genetics’ Ad Ignites Firestorm After American Eagle Controversy”: https://inews.zoombangla.com/dunkin-donuts-genetics-ad-ignites-firestorm-after-american-eagle-controversy/

“Eugenics and Scientific Racism”: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism

“Forced Sterilization of Disabled People in the United States”: https://nwlc.org/resource/forced-sterilization-of-disabled-people-in-the-united-states/

“Immigration Detention and Coerced Sterilization: History Tragically Repeats Itself”: https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself

“Q&A | ‘The shadow of eugenic thinking still hangs over disabled people today’”: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/people/2024/09/qa-the-shadow-of-eugenic-thinking-still-hangs-over-disabled-people-today/

“Sterilization in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) Detention: Ethical Failures and Systemic Injustice”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8034024/