Starbucks vs. Starbucks

Starting tomorrow and through this weekend, Starbucks is offering a taste test of their instant Via product against a regular coffee. 

The commercial is funny, and choosing Nancy Giles, who you might know from CBS News Sunday Morning, was a brilliant choice for a smart but slightly sarcastic narrator. 

But I find it interesting that the brand, which was built on coffee-as-experience, would choose to promote that you don’t need the experience after all. What do you think? Comment in the box below.

By the way, while looking for this commercial, I found that Starbucks is running a series of online videos showing two quite-likable people touring the country to promote Via. The final webisode was posted yesterday, but it’s not the best, so go back a few. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/Starbucks#play/playlists.

And if you have a restaurant-chain commerical or other video that you’d like to see in this space, just shoot an e-mail to chainleader@reedbusiness.com.