The star of the Comedy Central show Nathan For You, comedian Nathan Fielder, is the man behind Dumb Starbucks, a parody store of the Starbucks Coffee chain. Imitating the Starbucks logo, decor and menu but prefixing offerings with the word “dumb,” the parody coffee shop had people lining up outside.
Word spread on social media about Dumb Starbucks, according to The Guardian and the store’s Twitter account, @dumbstarbucks, has more than 7,000 followers. Nathan Fielder crested the public stunt by uploading a video in which he appeared as a barista and declared himself the founder and president of Dumb Starbucks. “Many of you probably know me as a comedian. But this is no joke. This is a real business I plan to get rich from. But I need your support,” the creator of the parody said.
The Guardian reported that there was a fact was sheet posted inside the Dumb Starbucks shop claiming that by them adding the word “dumb” it was technically making fun of Starbucks and so could use their trademarks under a law known as fair use.
Starbucks, which has 20,000 outlets worldwide, according to attorney Joseph Mandour, “In this case Starbucks can definitely argue that some consumers might think this is a real Starbucks, or at a minimum that it is somehow related to the real Starbucks.” The dumb Starbucks store is very similar to a regular Starbucks, except it has the word “dumb” in front of it.
The Los Angeles Health Department shut down Dumb Starbucks and according to an email from Starbuck’s as reported in USA Today, the coffee giant says that “We are evaluating next steps and while we appreciate the humor, they cannot use our name, which is a protected trademark.” Starbucks also said that Dumb Starbucks is not affiliated with Starbucks, in an email to USA Today.
On his show last season when Nathan Fielder set out to draw visitors to a struggling petting zoo, his idea was, Stage a video of a pig rescuing a baby goat from drowning and then watch it go viral. This was all filmed before the show Nathan for You was even on the air, and some unsuspecting news shows even played the video as if it really happened — and wouldn’t you know it, it went viral. On Twitter many acknowledged Nathan Fielder for what they called a clever publicity stunt. For more information on employment opportunities with Starbucks, readers can click here.
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