Guy Fawkes comes to Starbucks?

Monitorhead sez, "I was sitting in my car, staring at a 4-day old empty coffee cup, when I made the connection. Holy cow! Has the #Occupy movement already seeped into the marketing firms (thinking of the cool/hip ads from the late 60's, early 70's, thanks to the hippie movement), making this a hip commercial/cultural observance?"

I can't remember if previous Starbucks winter cups had the same imagery, and even if it's new, it could be a coincidence (or an unconscious homage). But still, it's awfully striking.

Occupy Starbucks?

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: design • occupy • starbucks • v for vendetta

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

http://twitter.com/noahtron noah saber freedman

you sure it’s not the nutcracker?
http://www.wristflick.com/ Christina G. Smith

I just was saying this to my husband when we went to the Starbucks in Paris. We both thought it was super awesome and hopefully on purpose.
http://twitter.com/grahamgoh Graham Gohmann

I think that’s just a nutcracker.
morkl

Guy Fawkes in a pope hat?
Nicholas Fryer

I’d wager it was intentional. Recall that OWS participants were being criticized for protesting with a Starbucks in hand. Now note that the Guy on the cup is winking. Case closed.
wpdk

Emoticons, not OWS -> ;-)
http://twitter.com/K_Christensen Kurt Christensen

A bit of a stretch. Pretty much every nutcracker looks like this.
robuluz

Sorry, wait, what’s ‘the nutcracker’ that we’re all completely familiar with and used to seeing represented everywhere and looks, like, totally fucking like the anonymous dude out of that movie with Natalie Portman?
- http://twitter.com/burntcopper Heather Wallace
  
  standard image of the nutcracker in the Nutcracker ballet. They’re dressed to look like a 19thc Russian officer. Hence the hat and uniform.
- Jonathan Roberts
  
  They’re very common in Germany, they have a lever at the back that opens and closes their mouth so you can crack a nut in their teeth.
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    But note that he doesn’t look like Guy Fawks, and the chap on the cup does.
    
    Of course the character itself is supposed to be a nutcracker, but the face is definitely reminiscent of the guy fawks mask.
bibulb

Freud was right – sometimes a nutcracker is just a nutcracker.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I immediately googled ‘nutcracker dildo’ and it appears that you’re right. I couldn’t find one.
  - freemoore
    
    Rule 34 violated! What the deuce?
    - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
      
      http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/phlog/archive/2008/12/17/video-slutcracker-adds-two-more-shows.aspx
      
      http://www.literotica.com/s/harry-dick-xmas-dildo-caper
      
      Rule 34 RE-ESTABLISHED.
      
      This was nothing but a sloppy google gone awry as there are nutcracker dildos out there; scientifically speaking all nutcrackers are prospective dildos. Case closed, book ‘em Danno
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

It’s the hat, which really isn’t very well-executed. The visor, which probably shouldn’t even be present, makes it look like the face is a mask.
Mujokan

It’s just that Alan Moore was making a reference to traditional European carnival masks (in this case the masks used for Guy Fawkes celebrations in England) when he designed the character. E.g. look at “les Picaros” from Tintin et les Picaros. This kind of face is also used for Nutcracker Suite soldiers. Put either (picaros or nutcracker soldier) into Google Images and you will see what we mean. Moore didn’t invent the mask out of whole cloth (so to speak).
Bynk

I noted this on my Facebook page a few weeks ago. As above, I wonder if it was subconscious or subversive.
Lobster

Well if there’s one thing that says, “I’m so economically oppressed I can barely afford to live” like a $5 cup of coffee made by a gigantic corporation.
- dculberson
  
  A cup of coffee at Starbucks is $1.50. Less than almost any restaurant I’ve been to lately.
  - Lobster
    
    Still 3 times as expensive as a cuppa joe from work, and about 10 times as expensive as one from home.
http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

My guess would be it’s meant to represent the classic Nutcracker character, but that resemblance to Moore’s imagery was not entirely unintentional.
http://twitter.com/nesnora nesnora

That’s one shifty looking nutcracker. It’s like he’s saying “Enjoy your coffee… that’s right… drink it allllll down… mmmmmm… capitalism…”
http://libertyviewmagazine.net/ Tod Westlake

Nutcracker. Sheesh.
http://twitter.com/VagabondAstro Robert Little

“V for Vanilla Latte”
- http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan
  
  V for Venti.
Julian Fine

Man, the ballet has been occupied for over a century and nobody knew. Obviously the work of a mainstream media cover-up!
http://twitter.com/UberdanSounds UberdanSounds

uhhh…conspiracy theories abound!
where’s mel gibson?

or is it just another nutcracker?
Ramone

Remember, remember the 25th of December?

/obligatory
- Arthur Delaney
  
  Nutcracker season for Tots.
  I see no reason why the Nutcracker season should ever be forgot.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Remember, remember the 25th of December?
  
  Guy Fawkes was trying to put Jesus (as represented by the Pope) back in the driver’s seat.
Ed Ligget. Tuba.

I collected Christmas nutcrackers for years and when I looked at this one something felt instantly wrong but I couldn’t place it until I looked at a few. The teeth are ALWAYS showing on Christmas nutcrackers, and the beards are almost always white. This could just be a foul-up on the part of the graphic artist, but if it is it’s a pretty big foul up IMO. That leads me to believe it was intentional, but only the artist knows for sure.
theophrastvs

Fawkespareidolia ’8})-
Greekster

See the movie “Pi.” You can see something everywhere if you really want to.
- ohbejoyful
  
  47
http://www.education4military.com Joe_Cool

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. ;)
Timothy Krause

Funny, I saw similar revolutionary material at my Starbucks today. Wonder if I can get a refund?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33498942@N04/6521534409/in/photostream/
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

“and even if it’s new, it could be a coincidence (or an unconscious homage).”

Or a conscious homage on the part of the designer.
MadMolecule

The moustache is what really brings home the Guy Fawkes resemblance to me.

For what it’s worth, a search of Flickr for images labelled Starbucks Christmas cup, and posted before Jan. 1, 2011, yields no such image. At least in the first few pages of results, after which I lost interest.
- monitorhead
  
  see, that was the first place i went to. I thought surley starbucks press release would have the whole cup image, the wrap around. no such luck.
  - monitorhead
    
    err. google image search. then dug thru starbucks press release.
ohbejoyful

There’s also a winking snowman:
http://fitnessista.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/11/hotchocolate.jpg
http://twitter.com/aniistoll Misty Mountain Stoll

My boyfriend works at Starbucks and has been doing this since Nov 5th… link to proof- http://i.imgur.com/KvXku.jpg I submitted it on Reddit and it got downvoted to hell and back :/ but anywhoo I think it was clever…
Antinous / Moderator

You people are so out of it. It’s totes Adam Lambert.
Iron Clad Burrito

So the Guy Fawkes mask is the new rickroll? Any pasty moustachio’d face is now an homage to OWS (much like, at the end of the meme’s life, any appearance of Rick Astley or any playing of his music was called a rickroll)?
(note to self: Grow a moustache.)

Guy Fawkes is dead. long live Guy Fawkes.
MyNameIsYourName

Who cares, people. Why are you giving Starbucks free advertising???
The._.Joker

Assholes capitalise upon the cosmic wink. And you give Starbucks a nudge? For shame.