17 Comments

Teaching marketing can be not-fun... Also Starbucks is bringing back chairs!

Like on the titanic, once a Venti hit $7.50, I quit the brand.

After a very long slide when I saw the brand go from cool to corporate-evil, it was pretty easy.

Expand full comment

They charged $7.50 for a venti on the Titanic?

Expand full comment

the original Bear > Bare joke was the best one. How can we know what the legal age of consent is for bears?

however, I do appreciate that you shared a joke rewrite for us to appreciate. It's a good reminder that the best ideas take time and iteration.

Expand full comment

If you read Bear-ly Legal, you'll know...

Expand full comment

that reminds me… how about that w i c k e d . c o m debacle? Wild copy-editing oversight. But also, the fact that it’s gotten way more press than the dolls themselves would have gotten without the errors speaks to how annoying it is to work in marketing. Doing something wrong gets more eyes on your brand than doing something right.

Expand full comment

You had the correct joke, then shifted to the correct joke only if you wanted to telegraph that you have too much knowledge of a specific genre of magazine.

Expand full comment

I am very, very proud of my knowledge of species-specific legal journals. Cow-lumbia Law Review, for example.

Expand full comment

Maybe its impossible for Starbucks to regain its soul given they have $35 billion in annual revenue?

Expand full comment

The Chick-fil-A ad just reminded me of this very spot on parody: https://www.tiktok.com/@lrnsscndlife/video/7383041222367005982?lang=en

Expand full comment

oh damn that is good...

Expand full comment

Ahhh, Lowenbrau. That was Grandma's favorite, in about the era of those ads. She was always pretty cool about giving me sips, and what sub-10-year old doesn't love that? (Yeah, I know: Most of them) I'm with you on the awfulness of the slurp, but the imagery is gorgeous and to me it says "you know this is gonna be some tasty coffee" (Yeah, I know: some people can't stand Bucks coffee). But your point about losing the plot is valid.

Expand full comment

When did grandparents stop giving their grandkids sips of beer? Because I cannot imagine my parents giving my kids beer when they were 10. But I could absolutely imagine MY grandfather giving me sips of beer (or more likely, my brother sips of beer). When did they tell grandparents not to do that?

Expand full comment

I'm here for the beeper king references

Expand full comment

Thanks, dummy.

Expand full comment

Freakin' Rudy. Also, I didn't teach marketing, but I did teach legal writing. I'm preeeeety sure teaching marketing would be better. Meh, who's to say.

Expand full comment

I love that Chik-Fil-A ad, but were the people acting or was it really a surprise and Chik-Fil-A flew Steven home and they all kept it a secret?!

Expand full comment

Steven went AWOL because he really, really wanted a chicken sandwich. But he didn't plan well, and left camp on a Sunday, only to find that Chick-Fil-A was closed. It's a crazy story.

Expand full comment