{"id":24216,"date":"2014-02-10T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=24216"},"modified":"2014-02-11T12:12:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T17:12:29","slug":"a-dumb-parody-that-starbucks-finds-unamusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/02\/10\/a-dumb-parody-that-starbucks-finds-unamusing\/","title":{"rendered":"A “Dumb” parody that Starbucks finds unamusing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that this “parody” of a Starbucks shop<\/a> is too similar to the real thing and that it would be easy for someone to think they were buying “the real thing” at this store:<\/p>\n

A store labeled as “Dumb Starbucks,” using the Starbucks corporate logo and bearing an almost identical look to an actual Starbucks, opened up in Los Feliz on Friday, according to employees.<\/p>\n

It was open until about 6 p.m. Saturday and drinks were free as part of what a barista called a “grand opening.”<\/p>\n

The coffee shop reopened again Sunday morning and coffee was again free. Dozens of people could be seen waiting in line to get in.<\/p>\n

Messages left with people associated with “Dumb Starbucks” seeking comment have not been returned. Messages left with Starbucks Corporation have also not been returned.<\/p>\n

The menu was limited.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, there still was no business license or health code rating posted in the establishment. The baristas said they were hired from Craigslist.<\/p>\n

Despite the popularity, customers seemed confused about what exactly was going on.<\/p>\n

“I saw online that there was a Dumb Starbucks sign. One of my friends posted about it, and I live across the street, so I just walked over,” Jonathan Brown told KPCC. He described it as “weirdly off-kilter,” with everything looking like a regular Starbucks except for the word “dumb” in front of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their “FAQ” posting shows that they’re aware that this ploy may not be lawyer-proof:<\/p>\n

\"Dumb<\/p>\n

Update, 11 February<\/strong>: The prank is revealed to be the work of Nathan Fielder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Fielder appeared in person at the store to make the announcement, where he said there are plans to open a second outlet in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

There had been widespread speculation that the store, which uses Starbucks’ trademarks, was a publicity stunt.<\/p>\n

Starbucks said they were aware of the store but denied any affiliation.<\/p>\n

“We are evaluating next steps and while we appreciate the humour, they cannot use our name, which is a protected trademark,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that this “parody” of a Starbucks shop is too similar to the real thing and that it would be easy for someone to think they were buying “the real thing” at this store: A store labeled as “Dumb Starbucks,” using the Starbucks corporate logo and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,9,13],"tags":[35,135,529,463],"class_list":["post-24216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-law","category-usa","tag-california","tag-copyright","tag-lawyers","tag-parody"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-6iA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24231,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24216\/revisions\/24231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}