• read more: #advertising, #mccafe, #mcdonalds, #marketing, #coffee, #starbucks, #fastfood

    McD's, Starbucks, and the Battle for the Yuppie Soul

    Are you overwhelmed today by the sheer force of the $100 million "marketing blitz" for McDonald's McCafé, the "mother of all campaigns" that's "impossible to escape"? Dié Starbucks! Drink McDonald's Coffeé Or Elsé!

    Honestly I haven't seen one fucking ad for this yet, myself, but that's okay, since McD's did an excellent job hyping up how their ads are EVERYWHERE, don't even try to miss them:

    McDonald's — never known for a delicate marketing touch — is about to drop the mother of all campaigns on you, an everywhere-you-look, invade-your-dreams ad campaign in support of its McCafĂ© specialty coffee drinks that will be not so much viral as bubonic. An estimated $100-million mega-buy across TV, Web, radio, print, outdoor and social media, the McCafĂ© push beginning today will be, according to the company, its biggest "menu initiative" since it began serving breakfast in the 1970s.

    Fine, fine. But Starbucks is an identity, not just a coffee shop. The bigger question here is: Will the yuppies of America sell their very faux-souls during a recession for measly $100 mil, forsaking Starbucks for the clutches of McD's? Sure, if McDonald's puts some fucking copies of Akeelah and the Bee by the register, some Dylan on the radio, open a store on Astor Place. Yuppies will flock to that shit to save a nickel. Drink your McCafé, yuppié.

    [I'm getting some tomorrow!]


    Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.