Honoring the demands of faint-of-heart schoolteachers, Starbucks draped hair over the nipples of its original mermaid logo, which currently appears on coffee cups to promote the new Pike Place Roast.
Advertising Age has Before and After images of the redesign. It also said one of Starbucks’ current PR problems is the “widespread misperception” that the logo swap is permanent.
It’s not. The throwback logo cups cease circulation in a few weeks, although why Starbucks thought they should stick around this long is anybody’s guess. Considering the logo is much older than Pike Place Roast, it was downright irresponsible to assume people would automatically associate one with the other.
Because there is nothing on those cups to suggest the old logo is a temporary promotion for Pike Place. When it disappears again, most people will probably think Starbucks tried and failed to reposition itself. They won’t even remember the “Pike Place” factor.
This is not the first time Starbucks has done something eye-catching with its brand but neglected to explain the whole story to consumers. Remember in February, when all its stores closed for almost four hours? Most people heard about it, but few understood why it happened.
For all the average patron knows, Starbucks has gone senile.
