Starbucks Subliminal Advertising

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angles
Performance Date: 04/21
Primary Language: English

This was told over lunch when a group of friends were discussing the new Starbucks drinks. The informant is a young 20 year old girl.

“Well, I heard once was that starbucks baristas spell your name like weirdly wrong, even if you have a very simple name and someone told me that was because they do that on purpose, because then you take a picture and then send it to people or post it online and that gives them free advertising!”
Analysis:
This is a newer version of a folk tale, that came out of the infamous actions of the Starbucks baristas. Everyone who listened to this story was pretty amazed and believed that it could be true. There is merit to the idea that such a big corporation as Starbucks would use some sort of subliminal, if not Orwellian, advertising technique to make people buy more. There is also the aspect of joining in on the fun of having your name spelt incorrectly, as if you are joining a community of people who have been wronged by corporate America.