
Confirming the well known fact that there are no more new ideas and that the sincerest form of flattery in advertising is to copy another’s work, Starbucks is the second company, after Netscape, to copy the office cubicle microsite thing, apparently originated by Hostway in April. Now, for those who like to snoop, yes, Starbuck’s version of the office cubicle site, called DoubleShot, resides on a site that was registered way back in 1998 but an informant tell us the cubicle creative was recently launched. No doubt, Adrants readers will correct any errors in this assumption.
The site itself has all the usual stuff from a lame video to a picture of parents that say “hello” to a gadget sweepstakes to voice mail messages to a ceiling darts to a number you can call to reach “Hank” who, of course, isn’t answering. It’s all been done before. Done. Done. Done. But, why is it that we spent so much time on the site engaging in “brand immersion” as those account management types like to call it? maybe the office cubicle is the new :30. Hey, the :30 worked forever. Why not the office cubicle?