Starbucks get out of my head: The corporations influence on political thought

Coffee with steam
Moments after picking up a venti vanilla latte from a St. Petersburg Starbucks, Sam Maston removed his cup's cardboard sleeve to inspect a message printed beneath.

"America's national debt is now $7.5-trillion, and it's skyrocketing, even as America's population ages," the cup read. "There will never be a better time to start paying off this crippling debt than today."

The quote, from environmentalist Denis Hayes, didn't faze the 29-year-old Maston.

"I'm a pretty hardcore Democrat," said Maston, who wore a black rubber wristband bearing the words I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH. "I think they should put that stuff on there."

Not everyone agrees.

sptimes.com...

Let me first start off by saying that Starbucks is way out of line with this. Despite the charismatic qualities associated with Starbucks, the fact remain:

It is a corporation. The purpose of a corporation is to create profit for the owners of the company, the share holders. Any action that is not beneficial to the shareholders is immoral and deemed illegal by the WTO

Starbucks has no obligation to entertain the notion of Social/Moral/Political responsibility. This belongs to the private sector of humanity (whatever little is left of it). Corporations should not exert their political opinion to it's customers in the form of a consumable product. The consumer buys the coffee, not political opinion. This is the equivalent of buying a pair of Nike shoes and on the box is printed:
'Islam is the largest religion in the world, millions of people across the world can't be wrong'

In short, strictly in the business sense, Starbucks is wrong for imposing political views in consumers. I would much rather purchase food at Taco Bell knowing that they pay workers in central America pennies on the dollar for giant bundles of tomatoes than buy another cup of Starbucks coffee again.

i think its just intellectual's opinions isnt it? kinda reminiscint of the coffee houses of the 18th century europe where great thinkers talked at.

who cares its only some dumb quotes, why does everything have to be political?

thanks,
drfunk

haha! They just opened one of those evil things in my area....I'm going to have to go buy one, just to see if they do it here.

Originally posted by drfunk
i think its just intellectual's opinions isnt it?

It would be intellectual opinion if Starbucks was independently owned and privately fianced. But since this is a corporation, this is not the case. Starbucks has no right to enter the political arena when the owners of the company have no soverign over Starbucks forced ideology.

Originally posted by drfunk
why does everything have to be political?

Because the statement being made is political.

Okay some of them may be considered political, but not ALL of them are.

Read the intent of it, it's working perfectly i think. Philosophical and political debate was the thing to do in European coffee houses of the 18th century and many of the greats of history did this.

" Not everyone agrees.

The Seattle coffee chain has raised some eyebrows over its "The Way I See It" campaign, which prints quotes from thinkers, authors, athletes and entertainers on the side of your morning machiatto. The goal, according to the company, is to foster philosophical debate in its 9,000-plus coffeehouses"

isn't people disagreeing with it foster debate??

I don't think corporations should have political stances either, but you know in the US corporations legally are people.

thanks,
drfunk

Originally posted by drfunk
The Seattle coffee chain has raised some eyebrows over its "The Way I See It" campaign, which prints quotes from thinkers, authors, athletes and entertainers on the side of your morning machiatto. The goal, according to the company, is to foster philosophical debate in its 9,000-plus coffeehouses"

isn't people disagreeing with it foster debate??

In that case it's probably the most clevry marketing strategy by any corporation in 2005. Insight conversation and debate while all the while, forcing people to stay at their establishment longer and spend even more money on different cups of coffee not only to drink, but to 'change the topic of conversation'.