Starbucks Drive Thru Reader Challenge - Part 2

For last week's Terrible Ad of the Week, you may remember that I posted a picture of some terrible advertising from the Starbucks Drive Thru and challenged readers to point out the problems with it. Today, I am happy to report that I received 0 total responses from the challenge. Clearly, the Advertisements Explained server was not equipped to handle the overwhelming volume of responses from my legions of readers.

My IT support staff worked on the problem all weekend.

So, what exactly is wrong with the Starbucks advertising? Well, loyal readers, Starbucks thinks we are all idiots.

Apparently someone over in the Starbucks marketing department heard that "going green" was cool now, so they decided to put some signs up in the drive thru to let everyone know how hip and progressive they are. And to make sure that everyone knows how hip they are all the time, they mounted three incandescent light fixtures outside to light up the signs...and left them on during the day.

I had to adjust the shutter settings for this picture to account for all the extra light.

Really, Starbucks? You're "committed to minimizing our environmental footprint" but you can't remember to train your skilled baristas to turn off the outdoor lighting during the daytime? Or maybe you're more committed to making money and seeming cool than actually tackling environmental problems.

This "environmental" marketing is like the Sunchips Eco-bag fiasco all over again, except that instead of finding out that people are stupid through marketing trial and error, Starbucks just went ahead and assumed everyone was stupid from the get go. Don't stand for this, discerning consumers!

Of course, the most discerning of you will say, "But Dan, why were you in the Starbucks drive thru to begin with? Did you have a lapse in your normally infallible marketing judgement?" The answer? Market research. To combat terrible ads and marketing ploys, I have to get out there and tackle the worst offenders so you don't have to. With great power comes great responsibility.

I also like iced hazelnut lattes.