some sugar in my smoking?

June 30, 2005

Yesterday I bought a coffee from a street cart and it came in one of those cups with advertising printed on it (maybe the coffee carts consequently receive the cups for free?)

I have sometimes gotten cups that were a little weird, like one with a bright blue Colgate ad, but then again, I’ve also posted here about Freshdirect’s peculiar but astute cross-marketing wherein, when you buy coffee, the bottom of the page says “Customers who bought this product also purchased: Half and Half, Crest Whitestrips.”

This cup, however, was garishly bright yellow, pictured a happy face with a cigaratte coming out of its mouth, and was an ad for an online discount cigarette outlet. I don’t want to walk around holding an ad for that! Even if it’s run by Native Americans!

It took me a minute after buying the coffee to realize just what I was holding, and it seemed too frivolous to go back and request another cup. I mean, if I had been in an actual store, I would certainly have complained.

That, of course, is one of the benefits of Starbucks or other corporate leviathans — if I don’t like my drink at Starbucks, even if only because I ordered something made with, say, caramel, and I don’t like caramel, I can go back up to the counter and tell them the drink is terrible, and they’ll toss it out and make me a new one. Your risk is absorbed. And if I want my drink in an extra-big cup, or super-insulated in two cups, or half-skim with a Santaria blessing over it, they’ll even hold back on the eye-rolling while complying.

The cigaratte cup, though … how unappetizing! What’s next? Maybe the pro-lifers could sponsor a bloody-fetus cup. How persuasive!

Posted by jen | Filed Under New York, advertising, consumer affairs 

Comments

Got something to say?