This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Miami (OH) chapter.
Let’s be real; Miami loves Starbucks. We have one right off campus, and almost every dining hall and market has a Starbucks cafe or station selling their beloved products. That’s how most of the world sees Starbucks, as the quick stop coffee shop with the signature green straw that can be found nearly around any corner. And that’s on purpose. It’s a part of Starbucks’ brand to have a store on every other street.
So, how did people react when the new cafe, Dumb Starbucks, opened up in Los Feliz, California? With a line out the door of course!
Dumb Starbucks opened Feb. 7 to loads of speculation and confusion. It was almost a complete rip-off of Starbucks except they placed “dumb,” or other equally descriptive words, in front of the logo and the names of the drinks. The questions were nonstop. Was this really Starbucks? Was it a publicity stunt? If it wasn’t Starbucks, could they legally copy all of Starbucks’ trademarked material?
Turns out that it was all a form of parody art done by comedian Nathan Fielder. He decided to open his own small business, in the form of a mock Starbucks, and give his coffee and products away for free rather than actually sell them. He ran Dumb Starbucks for three days until it was shut down by the health department. Starbucks is completely aware of what Fielder has done, and is currently figuring out what to do about the hoax. Since it’s classified as a parody, technically Fielder did nothing wrong, but Starbucks is still looking into what legal actions they could take, if any.