Dumb Starbucks opened in Los Angeles last week serving Dumb Frappuccinos and Wuppy Duppy Lattes. As I read the article, I scrolled back to the topic to make sure I wasn’t reading The Onion. Sure enough, I was reading the Los Angeles Times. This Dumb Starbucks was real, and Starbucks was “looking into it” according to a company spokesperson.
Clearly Dumb Starbucks wasn’t attempting to fly under the radar while profiting off the Starbucks name as evidenced by their active @DumbStarbucks twitter account. And the fact they weren’t charging customers for coffee.
So what is this all about?
It turns out it was a parody art project by Nathan Fielder who has a show “Nathan For You” on Comedy Central.
Viacom and Comedy Central issued a statement saying they “take intellectual property rights seriously, and also recognize the important constitutional protection afforded to expressive works characterized by social commentary. The episode relating to “Dumb Starbucks” constitutes protected free expression.”
Does it?