Starbucks 'DuffinGate' Controversy Continues Unabated


However you may feel about Starbucks coffee, the brand and its CEO Howard Schultz are brilliant at identifying the latest cultural trend and turning it into a marketing opportunity. This week the chain sponsored a petition urging our government to “Open It Back Up” and included some sort of deal in which customers get a free coffee if they buy one for someone else (which doesn’t make too much sense but it’s brilliant all the same).

In the UK, however, one of the brand’s latest campaigns tastes a little bitter—much like its coffee.

Starbucks wanted to spark a new sort of “cronut” craze by combining a jelly donut with a muffin and calling it a “duffin”.

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