Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Starbucks Pulls Controversial In-Store Poster

Aired June 19, 2002 - 07:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to turn now once again to the decision by Starbuck's to pull a controversial in store poster. We told you a little bit about this story yesterday. That poster features two cups filled with drinks and a dragonfly buzzing in the background. The phrase on the poster "Collapse Into Cool."

Well, the company removed the poster after complaints it resembled the attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Center here in New York City.

The question now, was it an obvious allusion to the tragedy or are some people just being hypersensitive?

Let's talk about it now with Donny Deutsch. He's chairman of the agency Deutsch Incorporated which, by the way, did not create this ad.

DONNY DEUTSCH, CHAIRMAN, DEUTSCH, INC.: No, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

HEMMER: But he's got a lot of experience in this area.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no.

HEMMER: Good morning to you.

DEUTSCH: Good. Thanks.

HEMMER: You look at this ad for the first time and you see what?

DEUTSCH: I see, and I'm going to give Starbuck's the benefit of the doubt here, because I don't think any company is this stupid or this insensitive, and certainly Starbuck's has a history of being a smart marketer, they've got a great brand. I see two cups of frozen drinks. I've got to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. There would just be no advantage to in any way trading on this, mocking on it.

I mean we're talking about the most sensitive thing in our lifetimes here.

HEMMER: You take that position, I'll take the contrary.

DEUTSCH: OK. HEMMER: And put it back on the screen, if we can, just for a second here. If you look at the bottom area here, it's blades of grass.

DEUTSCH: Right.

HEMMER: From a distance it could be buildings in Manhattan.

DEUTSCH: Sure. Yes, look, clearly, I could spend an hour saying why this could be that. I could say that the dragonfly is a plane. I could say -- I mean, but I've just -- you've got to step back and say these guys are in business.

HEMMER: OK.

DEUTSCH: Why would they do that? What is the up side? But the interesting thing is that it makes you think maybe, maybe these guys were doing it. They've certainly taken it off. But they, if I were Starbuck's and I clearly had nothing -- this was completely unintended, I would say wow, in a million years we didn't intend this, but even if somebody could misread it, we'll still pull it.

But they haven't even said that. So that's a little surprising.

HEMMER: Yes. The phrase at the top, is it more than alliteration, Collapse Into Cool?"

DEUTSCH: You know, once again, one more time, if I'm a detective and I'm trying to -- or I'm a lawyer and I'm trying to prove that they did try and make a reference to this, that word collapse is in there. But once again, I keep going, you know, these guys are in business. Why would they do that?

HEMMER: Apparently a reader here in New York City contacted the "New York Post." The "Post" then called Starbuck's and that's what really got the ball rolling on this.

DEUTSCH: Sure.

HEMMER: What I find interesting, Donny, I saw this story from Los Angeles on this very same topic. They stopped 15 people on the street and nobody made the connection.

DEUTSCH: Yes.

HEMMER: That's in California. I'm wondering if the hypersensitivity, perhaps, is in New York City, knowing that it's been only nine and a half months in this town.

DEUTSCH: Yes, I think that if you took, if you did a focus group and you took 50 consumers just fresh, they didn't know about the controversy, and said does this remind you in any way? They'd say no.

On the other hand, if you put it in people's head and say OK, now, twin towers. We've got the plane. We've got the word collapse. Could this be a reference? A lot of people would say yes. So I think it's the kind of thing when you, once it's pointed in your head, you could see it that way. Seeing it fresh -- New York, L.A., Chicago -- I still don't think most people would catch that.

HEMMER: Maybe we need a psychiatrist on this. No, I don't mean to make you laugh. Think about it now. Perhaps it's in the designer's head subconsciously to approach it from this perspective.

DEUTSCH: Yes, right.

HEMMER: Viable?

DEUTSCH: Or it could be in the designer's head. You know, there's a lot of, obviously, crazy people, insensitive people. Maybe some kid who was designing this thought that would be funny. I clearly don't think that the Starbuck's people who were approving this in any way, shape or form knew that. There's no, I've dealt with a lot of dumb companies and a lot of dumb marketing people, there's nobody this dumb.

HEMMER: I heard you mention the name stupid yesterday.

DEUTSCH: Right.

HEMMER: I'm not applying that to Starbuck's. In fact, I like their coffee.

DEUTSCH: Right.

HEMMER: You mentioned the statement from the company and you felt perhaps they haven't gone far enough.

DEUTSCH: Right.

HEMMER: Let's show our viewers what Starbuck's is saying now and quoting now. "We deeply regretted this ad was in any way misinterpreted to be insensitive or offensive, as this was never out of our intent, to link our advertise" -- it continues now on the next screen. Enough?

DEUTSCH: I would not have said, I would have gone further into the clearly it's not our intent. In no way, shape or form would we have ever been doing this. This is clearly a misread. But even having said that, we'll pull it. So I would have gone even stronger but, you know, hopefully if you're Starbuck's, we're talking about something else tomorrow.

HEMMER: Does this help their business because we're talking about it?

DEUTSCH: No, no. No, there's the old adage, you know, any news is good news, any P.R. is good P.R.

HEMMER: Just spell the name right.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no, no, no. Not here. This, there are just certain things in our lifetime that there will be no amount of time, there will be no amount of distance when there will be any humor or anything, and this is clearly one of them.

HEMMER: We only have a couple of seconds left here. Have you seen other campaigns in your career that perhaps did something similar to this, without intent, that brought up a lot of emotion and feelings from people who saw it?

DEUTSCH: You know...

HEMMER: Anything spring to mind?

DEUTSCH: Nothing in particular. But there is a very sensitive public out there. They're pretty much, if I showed you the letters we get from the most, you know, kind of innocent ads that people can misread, there are a lot of sensitive people about a lot of things out there in this world.

HEMMER: Thank you. Appreciate you stopping by.

DEUTSCH: Thank you.

HEMMER: Donny Deutsch.

Let's get back to Daryn now -- Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's just fascinating to look at that poster. You first brought that up yesterday about that.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is a company that figured out how to sell a 50 cent cup of coffee for $6.

KAGAN: There's a certain brilliance there.

CAFFERTY: They're not stupid. Using the World Trade Center in a piece of advertising would be stupid with a capital stool. So, you know, I tend to agree with the guest.

KAGAN: Yes.

CAFFERTY: This is nothing. I mean get over it. It's gone.

KAGAN: Move on.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

KAGAN: Got it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com