not so big. not so smart.

[substitute]

The marketers at the coffeehouse have decided to "brand" the chain as something different, something fun, something personal, and something not at all Starbucks. Good idea. They've done this by issuing brochures full of adjectives in large white sans serif fonts, and by a poster campaign of customers and employees sharing their differentness and specialness and not at all Starbucks ness. It's the last few Apple ad campaigns, basically. Bad idea.

We're responding with the most mature and sensible thing we could think of: Photoshop contest! Well, not really contest in that we have no prizes and no one cares. But we intend to amuse each other. I took bad digital pictures of the posters tonight, so you can see what they're like. Prepare yourselves for lens flare and blurring and other artifacts of the night shot. I suggest you start over with your pics and just try to simulate the ads rather than actually using these as models.

If you don't live around here or don't go to this place, this will be uninteresting to you. Carry on!

http://www.fringehead.org/album/diedrichads/

Edit: If you want to be in the one of the ads, go ahead: http://www.diedrichfeedback.com/

Edit Edit: The Register has a story from last year (!) about this ad campaign, in which they have also managed to insult the U.S. Marines. The campaign was created an ad agency in media hub Dana Point called "Collective Energy". I had no idea they had 473 stores. Where the hell are all those?

Comments

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Coffee People used to be great. I hear it's way downhill in the last ten years, but I loved it when I visited PDX before.

D's also owns Gloria Jean's, the shitty shopping mall flavored coffee people.

They may also include carts and things in airports and all kinds of things as "stores".

[oohahh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't go to Coffee People any longer, not since Diedrich's started roasting CP's beans and transporting them across state lines. Fuck that.

The new kid on the block is Stumptown Coffee (http://www.stumptowncoffee.com/). They roast beans every morning down at the first Stumptown location, SE Belmont & 33rd. Want a regular cuppa joe? Neat, it's all brewed by French press before being transferred to your standard push-button pneumatic carafes. Want espresso? It's thick, dark, and correct. I'm quite sure they have PC beans, too. There's a huge menu on the wall that I take pains to ignore each time I go. (I'm my little world, there are Colombian beans and Everything Else) Anyway, next time you're in Portland, it's worth being on the destination list.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Since the Diedrich I go to is the original one, with a big patio and lots of tradition, it's okay. But ever since they moved the roasting to that industrial location far away the coffee has been crummy. The places around here that have actually good coffee aren't fun to hang out at, sadly.

I'll make a note of Stumptown.