irish.lemon

i’ll say it now, that i’m so willing to be a whore for starbucks so long as bono approves it.  i know contradict myself somewhere therein as a result.  if you haven’t yet noticed because you live under a rock or are simply unfamiliar with product (red), starbucks has teamed up to form yet another co-branded force to be reckoned with.  as in the footsteps of gap, dell, apple, and a few others, starbucks has trademarked three holiday drinks and co-branded to the extreme.  today was “(red) friday” instead of “black friday” to those of you familiar with the idiocy of the american consumer on the day after thanksgiving.  at any rate, i hate admitting that i disagree with naomi klein on this issue of the co-branded world.  yes, capitalism is king, and how much of the $.05 actually goes to the purchasing of pharmaceuticals could indeed be argued vigorously, but given that i’m no investgative reporter, nor working [yet] at starbucks corporate in marketing, i have to take the endeavor at face value.

it’s an absolutely brilliant move; timely and tugging at the heartstrings of the selfish and jaded american consumer, to remember – hopefully – to do at least one good deed this season by buying one of the uber-branded drinks we offer in a partnership with quite possibly the largest charity brand since the red cross.  have i said “brand” enough yet?  i want to get that through to all of you.  this is huge, whether or not you recognize it.  not only huge in the sense of the money and marketing involved, but of the enormously huge corporate responsibility attached to it for both mega-brands.  i’ll not get into the contradictions of that argument, because for once, i’m not being as pessimistic as usual, but i guarantee that post is soon to come.  right now, i’m satisfied chilling and slinging drinks in my trendy (red) apron and giddy that such a hideously contradictory practice is in place for the holidays; i’m hoping for limited ulterior motive.

another thing that has starbucks tugging at my own heartstrings…SOCIAL MEDIA!  yep, it’s official, starbucks has broken the barrier of social networking!  not sure yet how i feel about it, aside from the fact that it needs much, much, MUCH more development, i’m not sure how comfortable i am with customers searching for me via “V2V” as it’s called.  still, i can’t help giving it a chance in hopes of someday being one of the people continually developing it.

my "giving tree" flyer (click to enlarge)

the giving tree (click to enlarge)

finally on my tardy list of holiday newsworthiness – concerning starbucks that is – my store’s “make you mark” teamed up with humanitarian service project.  nice to indirectly help them out through customer charity.  definitely didn’t expect it to be as successful as it’s proved to be so far.  feels good…makes me feel like i’ve got a good handle on cutting my teeth in PR lately.  my next big project – aside from the PRSSA conference in february and the american lung association “climb chicago” – is a local 5k or something of the sort in march.  i’m in no way gloating for once, but i’m proud of myself with the giving tree; i wasn’t optimistic at all and the response has been so positive that i hope i can keep on plugging away for HSP even though i’m not an intern anymore.  so, how busy am i that i still think of writing a stupid story about the past year at starbucks?  given that i’m on break until the new year, i think i’m just going to have to crack and give in to writing again for pleasure rather than obligations.  i’ve been worrying everyone in my complete lack of blogging and inability to concentrate effectively on my writing.  surprisingly, i found i do have a limit for writing, and it hadn’t occurred to me until it was recently pointed out by my best friend.  but i’m back, and i’ll be annoying everyone in the blogosphere even more as the break crawls on and i suffer more cabin fever when the first blizzard hits.  so here i close for the night considering i have to be up again in four hours to open the store.  i leave you with this:

(do something good everyday)