Romero, Jansen Joel C. Khaila B.

Gurion 3 lit Literary Theory

Deconstructing Starbucks

Originally the world-famous coffee shop that serves overpriced quality latte started in a small place in Seattle. Three white American friends spearheaded the idea of Starbucks, its name was based on Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. As they start to build their idea of a small coffee shop, English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker needed to invest 2,000 U.S. dollars and borrow 5,000 from the bank as their starting capital. In order to sustain this humble idea, the three though about how to capture the idea of Seattle itself in their business. Seattle was known for sailing and seaports, along with this are myths. Thus, the three decided to put a bare chested mermaid as their company logo. According to Howard Schultz, the current CEO of Starbucks, that the half-naked siren is supposed to be seductive like their coffees (Breeze). However, aside from putting something into their product that would refer to Seattle, the logo itself has deeper meaning. During 1970s, Seattle was still known for seaports, place for maritime activities and along with this activities are myths told by the seafarers themselves. The image of siren in Starbucks, based on Greek Mythology, is Melusine and according to seafarers portray mermaids as deadly. The sea creatures would sing irresistibly sweet where the sailors will be hooked and fascinated and eventually out of their minds that would cause their death. Relating the idea that came from the Greeks, Starbucks acts as a siren, Singing in an irresistibly sweet manner but eventually consume the customers money.

Bibliography
Breeze, Mez. The Next Web. n.d. <http://thenextweb.com/dd/2012/09/08/the-stories-inspirationbehind-world-famous-logos/>. Tina Holm Mortensen, Ea Elisabeth Finn Nielsen. The Story of Starbucks. n.d.