User:Jorygoof/sandbox

Dumb Starbucks
Dumb Starbucks in Los Feliz, California.
Artist	Nathan Fielder
Type	Parody Art Gallery
Location	Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
Accession	Fabruary 7-10, 2014

"Dumb Starbucks" is a parody art gallery created by Nathan Fielder. He used it as a publicity stunt for an episode of his TV series titled “Nathan For You”. The faux store opened on February 7th, 2014 in Los Angeles, although it had never sold any of its goods. Food and drinks from the store were given to customers for free. The store was allegidly closed on February 10th. After the store’s closing, a sign directing potential customers to the local Helio Café was left on the door.

Gallery Design

The gallery mimicked the look and feel of a real Starbucks, except the inclusion of the word "Dumb" as a prefix to everything in the store. The outside of the store displayed a sign reminiscent of the original Starbucks logo, with the inclusion of the word dumb in a smaller typeface on the top left of the word Starbucks. The iconic green circle and mermaid face was also poised above the name, with the dumb prefix found on the left side of the top half of the logo, causing the typeface to be a little smaller, to fix both words on the logo.

The inside of the store contained much of the same furniture and equipment that a typical Starbucks store would contain. Even the menu was reminiscent of any other Starbucks store, with the difference being the inclusion of the word dumb as a prefix to any written words. Customers could order things like a Dumb Cappuccino or a Dumb Caramel Macchiato. Fielder even took the measures to have Dumb CDs like Dumb Norah Jones Duets. The employee uniforms also mimicked the hunter green apron over a black shirt, like those of a typical Starbucks coffee shop, with the exception of the Dumb Starbucks logo, in place of the original. In fact, even the employees mimicked real Starbucks employees, as Fielder hired baristas with Starbucks experience that he had found using an ad that he had posted on Craigslist.

Media Coverage

Dumb Starbucks, in its three day existence, had received massive amounts of media attention, including some international attention, as shown by some of the news story clips used as transitory montages during the Nathan For You episode for which Dumb Starbucks was created. A Google search for “dumb starbucks” over 6.7 million results, with a large number of them being news websites. Dumb Starbucks had also received a massive influx of social media attention. An Instagram search for the tag shows over 3,000 posts, each receiving high volumes of likes. On Twitter, the tagline #dumbstarbucks received massive popularity during the three day span of its existence. Even after a year, the account @dumbstarbucks still has over 12,000 followers.

Public Speculation and Skepticism

Before it was announced who was behind Dumb Starbucks, which occurred at 4p.m. on February 10th, there was a ton of speculation around Dumb Starbucks as to who made the store, what was the purpose, and things of that nature. The various opinions of the store ranged from it being the work of Banksy, to it being a stab at American Consumerism, to it even being a social media stunt. There is some speculation surrounding Fielder’s intentions behind the creation of Dumb Starbucks. During his announcement on Monday afternoon, Fielder claimed to be opening another Dumb Starbucks branch in New York, but it was likely that that was just a ploy for his television show. As Lisa Borodkin pointed out in an article written for The Guardian, Fielder cleverly opened the store on a Friday afternoon after the courts had closed to give it temporary legal protection to operate over the course of the weekend and develop its media uproar without being legally interrupted. Fielder didn't announce himself as the creator until the afternoon of the following Monday, and the store was quickly shut down after his announcement. A request for public records pertaining to the Dumb Starbucks store from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services using MuckRock proved fruitless, which shows potential that, like everything else surrounding the store, the closure of the Los Angeles location by the health department might just have been a ruse.

Legality

According to Dumb Starbuck’s FAQ, the use of the prefix “Dumb” makes the use of the Starbucks logo completely legal and protected under parody law. There is a decent amount of legal speculation behind Dumb Starbucks and whether or not it is protected under parody law; especially since Dumb Starbucks was acting more as a business than an art gallery. It did not, however, sell anything. No money changed hands between the store and customers except for a tip jar accepting donations. Starbucks Corporation issued a statement addressing Dumb Starbucks saying that, while they appreciate the humor, Dumb Starbucks could not legally use their registered trademark. Given the rapid closure of the gallery, there was not an opportunity for any well-orchestrated legal action by Starbucks Corporation to occur.