Starbucks' latest marketing strategy? Make underpaid employees do more work for free.

Starbucks is in its desperate era.

The coffee giant's facing declining sales while struggling to maintain customer loyalty. So the brand has decided to launch a bold new initiative: forcing baristas to handwrite personalised, positive messages on cups. You know, to brighten your day—and, more importantly, to fix their sinking brand.

Unsurprisingly, this has spiralled into absolute chaos.

Social media is now flooded with cup messages. And these range from hilariously unhinged to borderline offensive, proving once again that when you hand the internet a Sharpie, it will not disappoint. Employees have drawn everything from absurd memes to outright insults. And, in some cases, their own thinly veiled cries for help ("This job is killing me," scrawled in elegant cursive, is particularly haunting, but also totally understandable.)

When in doubt, exploit the baristas

At first glance, this might seem like a harmless—if cringy—attempt at rekindling Starbucks' once-iconic third place branding. And it is. But it’s also emotional labour disguised as customer connection.

Starbucks baristas are already juggling impossible workloads. Endless mobile orders. Long drive-thru lines. And the occasional entitled customer demanding a triple-venti-half-sweet-nonfat-caramel-macchiato right now. And now, in addition to making your coffee, they’re expected to be your personal motivational speaker?

I’m sorry, but if I was a Starbucks employee, I’d be throwing your coffee ACROSS THE ROOM.

Worse still, there’s no extra pay for this new initiative. No bonus. No employee appreciation. Just a fresh layer of forced cheeriness piled onto an already overwhelming job.

The return of Starbucks’ PR misfires

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Starbucks has a rich history of well-intentioned marketing ideas that backfire spectacularly.

Remember Race Together? Back in 2015, the company asked baristas to start conversations about race relations with customers while making their lattes. Shockingly, asking a 19-year-old making minimum wage to facilitate America’s long-overdue racial reckoning didn’t go over well.

Then there was the disastrous push to sell olive oil-infused coffee (because nothing screams "great idea" like pairing caffeine with a laxative). That didn’t exactly take off, either.

Now, Starbucks has once again decided that the best way to solve its problems is to make employees do more work for free. And based on the sheer volume of sarcastic, passive-aggressive, and downright absurd messages popping up on cups, it’s safe to say the baristas are not on board.

A Sharpie won’t save you, Starbucks

Starbucks’ real issue isn’t a lack of feel-good moments. It’s a fundamental disconnect between corporate decision-makers and the people actually running their stores. Customers aren’t leaving because their cup wasn’t personalised. They’re leaving because the prices are climbing while the quality and experience are declining.

Meanwhile, the employees keeping the company afloat are overworked, underpaid, and now forced into unpaid brand ambassador roles.

The irony? This might actually be good marketing—just not in the way Starbucks intended. The ridiculousness of it all seems to have people talking, even if it's mostly to laugh at the brand's expense. But whether this translates into actual customer retention is another story.

Until then, baristas will keep wielding their Sharpies. And we’ll keep watching as Starbucks learns, yet again, that forced authenticity is the fastest route to public ridicule.

-Sophie, Writer