Starbucks

I've been spending a lot of time browsing Flickr's Explore page recently, and dreaming that one day I will be able to take good pictures. The Explore page is a random sample of a collection of the 500 most interesting photos on Flickr each day. The photos are widely varied and cover every style and subject, but I've noticed one particular subject popping up in Explore over and over, and the composition and style is always the same. It's a macro shot, with a "bokeh" background, (which, yes, is very fashionable anyway).
A cardboard Starbucks coffee cup.
Sometime in the summer, after the Cobble Hill cross country race, Amy Luck (one of Hilary's pottery students) invited some of us over to her house for a "girls night". Erica (another student of Hilary's) used to work at Starbucks, and we ended talking about the "coffee culture" in North America. This proves (well, strongly supports) Amy's theory.
Interestingness is calculated based on a secret formula, but basically, the more people view a photo, comment on it, and mark it as one of their favourites, the more "interesting" it is. Now, Flickr's a big place. As I write this at 12:30 am (of course, I'm going to bed at 11 today to catch up on some sleep) Flickr says that 7084 photos were uploaded in the last minute, and it's the middle of the night. To be one of the 500 most interesting is quite an achievement. Americans must like their coffee.
I say "their" as I am obviously not one of them. The smell of coffee makes me nauseous. I don't go to Starbucks unless with someone else (ie. not very often), because of this (and that I'm a cheapskate). But if I did want a cup of tea and didn't want to go home for one (ie. never, unless I'm with someone else), then I'd go to Tim Horton's (but their tea is horrible, so I'd have hot chocolate instead). I find Starbucks intimidating. The few times I have been, I've just gone with "chai tea late", because it's all I know. You can't even just have a hot chocolate - dark, milk, white? Cream, milk or water? Flavouring? (What flavours have you got?) Gingerbread, mint, caramel, ...? I'm culinarily ignorant, so you might as well just give me a Sushi menu. I know fish and chips, toad in the hole, cheese and beetroot sandwiches, roast beef, trifle, and Custard Creams. You could be talking Latin to me when you start ordering Hollondais sauce, mussake, foccaccia, chop suey, temaki, profiterole, tortillas, ... (but I know what Prairie Oysters are, thankyouverymuch). I don't know if I want a shinny or grande. I don't care what country the nutmeg came from. I thought "mocha" was a colour. Macchiato sounds like a martial art. I'm not even sure what makes the tea "chai".
Why is it this way? It's snobbery, surely. It's wanting to sound clever, be fashionable, cool (though I think I'm showing my age here - didn't people stop saying cool in the 90's?). It's like wine tasting - red with fish, white with red meat, "this fruity full bodied blend would compliment the aroma of the orange and mint blossom duck pate beautifully!".
But then what about shampoo? (shampoo?) My shampoo isn't "lemon" scented, it's "kiwi lime squeeze with lemon grass extract" (damn - I'm sure I'd gotten one with Ulang Ulang!). Who says "Oh, I'll get this one, because the kiwis and limes have been squeezed, and it's not got whole lemon grass, just extracts." My laundry detergent is Orange Mango Tango. My tooth paste is cool mint, as opposed to fresh mint, spearmint or cool ice (whoever heard of warm ice?). When I bought deodorant I had the choice of baby powder, spring fresh, shower fresh or summer breeze (but I wanted fresh breeze!). My dish soap is crisp cucumber melon spring sensations.
Why?
Soup is going the same way. I challenge you to find a can of soup that says "chicken soup" on the label!
So what's this all about? Marketing of course. (Isn't that what everything's about?) I suppose we (the consumers) are supposed to think that the more healthy/fresh/organic/clever adjectives they use, the more engineered we will think the product is - obviously, more research, product testing, and engineering has gone into "Bumbleberry and South African lentil, with crushed wheat grass and acai berry seed essence" scented dish soap, than "fruit". Then there's the "comfort and enjoyment" factor. The C&E factor was taught to me in a business course taught by Mr. Potter in high school. For an assignment in the advertising unit we had to watch a load of advertisements on TV and write down which of a list of advertising techniques were used. Comfort and Enjoyment is the only one I remember, probably because one of the boys shouted it out when the Preparation H commercial came on. C&E was when irrelevant things are used to summon thoughts and memories of comfort and enjoyment. Like the box for the tea I'm drinking. It's called "sleepy time", and has a picture on the box of a teddy bear in a night gown, slippers and stocking hat (with a pompom), sitting in a rocking chair in front of a fire. For some reason, I only usually drink this kind before I go to bed.
"Fruit" isn't a good blurb for dish soap. I wasn't at all surprised to read that there are people that write book blurbs for a living. Naming paint colours continues to hold the "dream job" title for me. I think I'd be good at it. I think my bedroom is "Glowing Pompleberry Espresso White" (what colour is my bedroom, anyway? I can't tell - I still haven't changed the light bulb, and won't likely do so, as it is a good excuse for not wearing matching colours). Am I getting off topic yet?

I didn't take the photos on this page. They're in the Starbucks group on Flickr. Yes, a group of photos just of Starbucks cups and chairs and stuff. My next sentence was going to be that there's no group for Tim Horton's, but there is. But it's crap.
So I'm going to have to either steal a Tim Horton's cup, or buy a cup of Hot Chocolate after work tomorrow and take some photos. Anyone coming with me? On me. Two word maximum.