Does Caffeine Make You Smarter?

This morning, I headed downtown to the Art Institute for a workshop on bookmaking. After acquiring a much needed caffeine fix, I noticed that my coffee cup had a saying on it. Specifically, “The Way I See It” No. 54, from Civil Rights Leader Morris Dees: “We are all brothers and sisters. Each face in the rainbow of colors that populate our world is precious and special. Each ads to the rich treasure of humanity.”

Starbucks is now running this campaign on all their coffee cups, and according to there web site wants to “get people talking”. www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit.

This is a wonderful saying. The concept is all very well and good. But it’s not practical. First of all, at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, even the people working at Starbucks are a little cranky, and they get their caffeine for free. Second of all, it takes effort to read the cup because of the cardboard sleeve thingy covers it (you know the thing that keeps you from burning your hand when you hold the hot cup). That early in the morning, it was too much effort to figure out what profoundness my coffee was trying to convey.

Some marketing guy deserves a kick in the ass for putting the saying on the cup rather than on the sleeve.

Stupid Starbucks.

But they did win in some small way. I’m taking about it. And I’m wondering what I would want quoted from me on a coffee cup…