Over the weekend while I was on Twitter surfing through the trending topics, I came across the hash-tag #dumbstarbucks and was immediately intrigued. According to the company’s Twitter @dumbstarbucks, this new establishment is a parody coffee shop of the well known coffee utopia Starbucks. Dumb Starbucks Coffee opened on Friday, February 7th in Los Angeles, California and has been causing quite an uproar ever since. Located at 1802 Hillhurst Avenue, the coffee shop gave away free coffee this past weekend and had lines going down the block. Celebrities like Rainn Wilso, waited for over an hour along with other common folk who were amused and curious to see what this Dumb Starbucks place was all about.
Although Dumb Starbucks claims they are a parody establishment, the real Starbucks Coffee stated while it appreciates the humor “they cannot use our name, which is a protected trademark.” (TMZ) Dumb Starbucks claims what they’re doing is perfectly legal because it’s a parody … and parody is protected under the law. They also added that their “coffee shop” is actually an art gallery, and the coffee that they sell is considered the art. There is still no word on who is behind the spoof, but whoever it is should prepare for a very messy lawsuit. Although Dumb Starbucks seems to have done all their research regarding the parody law, I’m sure that the real Starbucks isn’t going down without a fight.
Dumb Starbucks Menu. All the menu items are similar to those at Starbucks, they just have the word “dumb” in front of them.
(Photograph courtesy of Dumb Starbucks/Twitter)
Dumb Starbucks FAQ list. Although I don’t agree with the idea of the parody, the answers to the questions are very impressive and quite humorous.
(Photograph courtesy of USA Today)
(Featured Image courtesy of Dumb Starbucks/Twitter)
