Whenever I’m at Starbucks ordering the usual mocha frappuccino, I find myself in front of a large cabinet of mugs, tumblers and stuffed toys that have the logo of the coffee shop imprinted either on the tag or on the item itself – promotional products that help market the coffee shop. I ponder at the tumblers, arranged uniformly on the shelves, ready to entice this mocha frappuccino drinker into surrendering the few hundreds of pesos left in his three-year old wallet.
I might as well buy one. Any offices I’ve been to there was someone using a Starbucks tumbler, whether they be a call center agent, in-house fashion designer, or magazine editor. It’s conveniently spill-proof. I can easily fill it with water from the dispenser. I can sometimes use it as a container of a 15-peso goto I buy from one of those Oras ng Himala concessionaires. It’s not cheap, so I can boast I was able to afford one, even if it will still be the same tumbler I’ll be using five years from now.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t. I already have a tumbler, with the logo of the company I previously worked for printed paper white against its shiny metallic-blue surface. I got it as a freebie after my regularization, and I didn’t even have to shell out money. It has the same features and benefits as the Starbucks tumbler, with the exception of a black handle that makes it look like a hybrid between a tumbler and a mug. One time I brought it with me out of the office and into a convenience store where some fresh graduates can’t make up their minds which companies they would like to apply to. They saw my mug and wanted to have one as well. Needless to say, I had four new friends come with me to the front desk to pass their resumes.
