Beautiful Ploy

Check out this book display at Starbucks.

beautiful_boy.jpg

This was the only book for sale at the store. And what’s the book about? The tragic effects of meth addiction on a man’s son. Meth, as we know, is an addictive stimulant that makes people change their habits and spend all their money… and if there’s one thing Starbucks wants its customers to understand, it’s that Starbucks firmly believes, as confirmed by eye-catching displays that include emotion-packed words like “heartbreak” that they most certainly, no-way, no-how approve of stimulant addiction.

But wait one bean-pickin’ minute, Starbucks. Your business is all about selling addictive stimulants. Listening to the fervor in your store from customers who say they “need to get my Starbucks” and then pay five dollars for a cup of coffee removes any plausible deniability that you’re blind to the addictions you’re fostering. And you’re and capitalizing on them.

That said, there’s nothing inherently wrong with selling coffee to consenting adults. And I acknowledge that coffee is less harmful than meth, though I know more people addicted to coffee than meth. (Amphetamines, since we’re talking about prevalent stimulants, are prescribed to millions of adults. People who wish to distinguish those harmful pharmaceuticals from harmful street meth on some moral high ground are deluding themselves.) But regardless of whether it’s a powerful or moderate stimulant, adults deserve honest, accurate information about what they’re taking.

Starbucks provides no information about the harms of drinking a quadruple grande breve with one thousand calories and enough caffeine to jolt a elk. But they should. And Starbucks’ attempt to downplay the addictive properties of their own product by juxtapositioning it next to the dramatized depiction of another, more harmful drug is dishonest. But it’s a beautiful ploy.

34 Responses to “Beautiful Ploy”

  1. Daniel says:

    I read similar article also named Beautiful Ploy, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me

  2. paydayloans says:

    Good Day!!! dominicholden.com is one of the most outstanding informational websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. I will be back.

  3. Gia Dehay says:

    Well-written. Thanks. As someone who has struggled with an addiction myself, I really appreciate your blog.

  4. Janae Debaca says:

    GetArticleBot.com is hands down the best Twitter follow site around!

  5. wow, nice post, I was wondering

  6. Of course, what a cool site and informative posts, I will add backlink - bookmark this site? Regards, Reader.

  7. Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again - taking you feeds also, Thanks.

  8. Gaye Pinkney says:

    Choose credit cards for bad credit that will offer you convenience and ease of use. Some will allow you to deposit your entire paycheck into the special savings account set up for your credit card. This could also help you in controlling the spending, as the cash will not be readily available and could make for easier budgeting.

  9. Quite usual you’ve offered several fantastic insight. Been lurking on the webpage for some time and needed to give thanks to you for making the effort to publish it.

  10. There is obviously a good deal to be familiar with about this. I believe you produced some good factors in Functions also.

  11. Debt Help says:

    This is my second time i visit here. I found so many fascinating stuff in your pages especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your writing, I assume I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! Keep up the good work.

  12. What a good blog you have here. Please update it more often. This topics is my interest. Thank you. . .

  13. MMMmm, I just read something similar on another wiki page.

  14. Jonny says:

    sq0Vpm Cool lol hey bla bla bla bla

  15. Jonny says:

    WHmsTM Cool lol hey bla bla bla bla

  16. Jonny says:

    jQpebK Cool lol hey bla bla bla bla

  17. i know i’m a little off topic, but i just wanted to say i love the layout of your blog. i’m new to the blogegine platform, so any suggestions on getting my blog looking nice would be appreciated.

  18. This is my second visit to your blog. We are starting a brand new initiative in the same niche as this blog. Your blog provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done a marvellous job.

  19. This is my second visit to this blog. We are starting a new initiative in the same niche as this blog. Your blog provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done a fantastic job.

  20. Thank you for such a fantastic blog. Where else could anyone get that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I have a presentation that I am presently working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.

  21. This is my first visit to your blog. We are starting a new initiative in the same niche as this blog. Your blog provided us with important information to work on. You have done a admirable job.

  22. Good day is Blogengine a free blogging software like wordpress? Also does it have lots of plugins and themes for it? I would like to start using it for my new blog if it does. Thanks…

  23. i know i’m a little off topic, but i just wanted to say i love the layout of your blog. i’m new to the blogegine platform, so any tips on getting my blog looking good would be appreciated.

  24. Recently, I did not give whole lot thought to commenting on weblog articles and have left feedback even less. Viewing your useful piece of writing, might inspire me to do this again.

  25. uspto patent says:

    I agree with you. This type of projects should be encouraged and I think that these type of projects are the projects for the future. . . . .

  26. best drip coffee maker…

    I found your resource via Google on Sunday while searching for best drip coffee maker and your post regarding Daily DIY Network - Science Projects Plans Guides ” Blog … looked very interesting to me. I just wanted to write to say that you have a gre…

  27. Thank you for another fantastic blog. Where else could I get this kind of info written in such an incite full way? I have a presentation that I am just now working on, and I have been looking for such information.

  28. This is an excellent post, I will definitely be adding this blog to my list!

  29. Matthew says:

    I woke up today depressed but after reading this page my mood improved.

  30. YES! I finally found this web page! I’ve been searching just for this article for so long!!

  31. Thanks for sharing this great submit, i really adore your weblog, but i’ve some problem i dont know whether it is my side problem or on your site? some words from the post in your weblog have charactor encoding problem, yes i use auto detecting, can u pls look into this problem a bit?

  32. Jack Sarkin says:

    Great job. Good article I must say.

  33. The post gave us an important Brainstorm session of all the probabilities we can make use of on our blog.

Leave a Reply