Stalking Caribou into dangerous territory
I recently saw this little blurb in Ad Age:
Caribou Coffee bows first national TV effort
Caribou Coffee, the country’s second-largest coffee chain behind Starbucks, today will launch its first national TV ad campaign. The creative by Colle & McVoy seeks to poke fun at Starbucks loyalists by portraying them as marionettes.
As a Starbucks, Peets, Coffee Bean and even local café customer, this made me bristle. And I bet it’ll do that to other coffee lovers, too.
Caribou is not Apple, and Starbucks is not Microsoft. I’ve been to several Caribou Coffee stores, and they’re nothing to bellow about. They’re fine. Pleasant. But they don’t inspire, they aren’t highly innovative, and their coffee isn’t in a class by itself. So slamming people for buying coffee in a place that is innovative, that works hard to keep its experience fresh and relevant, and that transformed an entire industry, seems questionable.
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