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  • SUNDAY MAY 18 2008 6:00 AM

Starbucks Selling Sex and the Idiot Who Believes it

You know how sometimes, when someone is discussing their long-term relationship or the fact that they've lived to a ripe old age, they'll say something like, "BLANK never ceases to surprise me... every time I think I've got it all figured out, I look up and BLANK has etc. etc."?

I think I'm that way, too, only switch "long-term relationships" with "world full of idiots." Every time I think I've seen it all, that all the idiotic exploits have been accounted for (and I've been doing this column for awhile now), along comes something to once again stun me into submission. FearTheReaper briefly addressed it in his Asshole Fuckface Roundup, but this story seemed just moronic enough to justify a two-pronged attack. (Uh, I tried to come up with an example of two prongs being more effective, the closest I could come up with was a fork, with three tines. It might still work.)

A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release.


God damn... that is truly something to behold, isn't it? It almost doesn't seem real. If you cast this dolt as the villain in a movie and he marched onscreen yelling about how Starbucks is slipping porn into their coffee, I'd find it too ridiculous to even consider... and yet it's actually happening. An adult man, a non-head traumatized man, came to this decision... and decided it'd be a good idea to share it with the world.

"...legs spread like a prostitute." Yes, like a gill-breathing, scale-covered underwater prostitute. Who you'd pay with seashells and pirate treasure.

And really, "legs spread" equals "prostitute"? That's the first thing you go to? He goes on:

"Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."


Okay, now you're really killing me. Please don't attempt to be funny on the heels of ridiculous outrage and indignation. It's not something you could pull off even under the best of circumstances so, really, not now.

Slutbucks? That may actually be more embarrassing than your initial complaint.

The group, which claims more than 3,000 members nationwide...


Please, tell me they have to register before moving into a new neighborhood.

... and has found a place on the fringe advancing various conspiracy theories, is calling for a national boycott of the coffee-selling giant.


Idiot: "Sir, look at your coffee cup! Please boycott with us."

Guy: "Huh?"

Idiot: "Look! It's a slutty woman with her legs spread!"

Guy: "No, it's just a mermaid with no nipples or anything even remotely tantalizing to speak of."

Idiot: "Beware, everyone! This man has a craven image on his shirt! A tiny penguin! With a cock-sucking beak and come hither eyes! And he runs off into his truck, adorned with a pagan ram on the hood! A ram who is probably a pimp on the side!! Beware!!"

The image is a less-revealing version of what the chain used for many years, starting when it first opened in Seattle in 1971. That original logo was resurrected in its Northwest outlets for a time in 2006 to mark the chain's 35th anniversary.


And it caused anarchy!! You guys remember that, right? Entire oceans afire, continents plunged into chaos, plagues of demons ravaging the globe... Boy am I glad they swapped that cup out, it was touch and go there for awhile.

Baker said the newly revived logo was "modified a bit [from the original] based on feedback" from Starbucks customers during its 2006 appearance. "We feel it's appropriate," she said.


Well okay... whore-lover!

The explanation for that initial logo is explained in the book "Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time," written by company founder Howard Schultz:

"[Creative partner Terry Heckler] poured [sic] over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old 16 Century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren....


Yes, the mermaid, the most promiscuous off all God's sea creatures. Worse even than that good-time Charlie himself, the manatee. What the hell were they thinking?

According to Mark Dice's Wikipedia page, some of his equally appalling positions are insisting 50 Cent remove the cross he wears, and claiming that Tom Cruise worships Satan. (Um, what? Is the thing he already admits to being, Scientologist, way worse than a satanist? I mean, even the satanists passed on Giovani Ribisi.)

It gets worse. Everything I've written up to this point would seem to conjure the image of an out of touch, old man furious at the world. But, lo and behold, he's actually an out of touch middle-aged, man furious at the world... and he's super unfunny. There's something so much creepier about that. He looks like some Maxim-loving, date-rapey frat guy, with a handful of restraining orders on him.

Please note his attempted "gonzo, freewheeling anarchist style" which falls utterly flat. Notice that at no point does he come close to either humor or making a coherent point. It's as if Steve Carell's character from "The Office" decide to try to save the world... after he was hit in the head with a ballpeen hammer.



Wow. Danny Bonaduce actually makes an appearance and shockingly comes off as the more sane person.

Mark Dice please leave society forever.




TheCoolerKing has discovered there's no dignity-salvaging way to ask for a splenda.

 

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Comments
Vykos1579

Vykos1579

Higganum, CT
April 2008

MAY 18, 2008 07:01 AM

After Looking on this guys web site I have come to the conclution that this man is an attection Hore. He is not trying to save the world he is trying to get his 15min by bad mouthing people. puke So in about 2 weeks or so Look for him spouting how SG is helping to fund baby rap or something like that.

zombie_nirbhao

zombie_nirbhao

Mackinac Island, MI
October 2007

MAY 18, 2008 08:40 AM

gonzo journalism was not so self-indulgent

zombie_nirbhao

zombie_nirbhao

Mackinac Island, MI
October 2007

MAY 18, 2008 08:41 AM

gonzo journalism was never so self-indulgent

defaultx

defaultx

I'm lost
February 2006

MAY 18, 2008 09:02 AM

bwaawawaw adventures in lala land. rofl

penguinTag

penguinTag

Ontario, CA
May 2008

MAY 18, 2008 10:14 AM

I totally agree.

I'm a Starbucks Barista/Shift Supervisor, IMO our retro logo is awesome, bringing back that classic feel to our coffee shop, it's passion for our job. This guy is a nutjob! puke

LiquidSunset

LiquidSunset

Rancho Cucamonga, CA
August 2006

MAY 18, 2008 11:37 AM

Wow. I hate this man with a passion; he's a freakin' idiot!!
Bonaduce is totally right.
I love that, "You'll never amount to anything, and you're only able to do this because you live in this country." biggrin

motorfirebox

motorfirebox

Pittsburgh, PA
March 2004

MAY 18, 2008 11:43 AM

Corporate coffee and the hard right, locked in a battle to the death. I'm trying really hard to find a downside!

LiquidSunset

LiquidSunset

Rancho Cucamonga, CA
August 2006

MAY 18, 2008 11:47 AM

Wow. This guy is a freakin idiot!
Bonaduce is so right! I love it- "You will never amount to anything and the only reason you're able to do this is because you live in this country."

LiquidSunset

LiquidSunset

Rancho Cucamonga, CA
August 2006

MAY 18, 2008 11:48 AM

Wow. This guy is a freakin idiot!
Bonaduce is so right! I love it- "You will never amount to anything and the only reason you're able to do this is because you live in this country."

LiquidSunset

LiquidSunset

Rancho Cucamonga, CA
August 2006

MAY 18, 2008 11:48 AM

Wow. This guy is a freakin idiot!
Bonaduce is so right! I love it- "You will never amount to anything and the only reason you're able to do this is because you live in this country."

NakedJayson

NakedJayson

Concord, CA
December 2005

MAY 18, 2008 02:34 PM

My 'not into' profile has been altered to include Mark Dice.

Arsenic_

Arsenic_

HOPEFUL

Washington, DC

MAY 18, 2008 03:12 PM

Oh jeez.. whatever Stupid bigoted christians..


Well, as a manager of Starbucks, I can say this...

1. The Siren is a mermaid, mermaids don't have legs. They have fins, and tails.
2. This image is WAY toned down from the original, so stop being such ignorant prudes!
3. Starbucks only brought back the old logo FOR A SHORT TIME to introduce the new Pike Place Coffee. When we issue the Christmas cups this year, the logo will be the familiar green that everyone is used to, and after christmas, the cups will go back to the white with the green logo. So stop freaking out over nothing.

Very well written artical over something that shouldn't be an issue to begin with..

ElvisCage

ElvisCage

Bellport, NY
January 2006

MAY 18, 2008 03:28 PM

Wow, that guy makes me want to go buy some Starbucks now.

erin_broadley

erin_broadley

Los Angeles, CA
October 2006

MAY 18, 2008 06:11 PM

perhaps mark dice and "the resistance" would prefer her replaced with a merman?

erin_broadley

erin_broadley

Los Angeles, CA
October 2006

MAY 18, 2008 06:13 PM

perhaps mark dice and "the resistance" would prefer her replaced with a merman?

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