With the presidential election just one week away, nothing seems to be getting Americans’ hearts racing like a new opinion poll. Perhaps wanting to get in on the action, Dunkin’ Donuts decided to commission a poll about its own high-stakes race: Dunkin’ Donuts coffee versus Starbucks coffee.
According to a commercial the donut chain made to go with its poll, the results show that: "In a national taste test, more hard-working Americans preferred the taste of Dunkin' Donuts over Starbucks."
The first question that springs to mind, of course, is: what criteria did they use, exactly, to find out whether these people were "hard-working"? And why do they have to be "hard-working" in order to judge coffee?
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| Dunkin' Donuts (Click image to watch ad) |
We have to wonder if the reference is a jab at those non-hard-working, Chardonnay-sipping, brie-eating elites who would, naturally, prefer Starbucks' hoity-toity drinks over the basic, quality cup of Joe you can get at Dunkin' Donuts. That may be a good tactic for appealing to the base, but is it really going to get the undecideds?
The commercial follows a fictional white-coated researcher as she visits one fictional hard-working American after another, interrupting their job so they can try some coffee. (Sadly, no plumber is shown drinking the Joe.) All of these faux workers like Dunkin’s coffee better, of course.
We’ve been highly amused by the increasingly competitive coffee wars, which has everyone from McDonald’s to Krispy Kreme vying to give you the best caffeine buzz. We’ve also been fans of some of Dunkin’s other attempts to take on Starbucks by making fun of its drink names and highfalutin image.
But this ad falls short of the mark.
For one thing, polls commissioned by a company itself are bound to draw a little skepticism, even when, as here, the poll is conducted by independent researchers. It doesn’t help that the ad features fake researchers and taste testers, and yet doesn’t take the tack far enough with something truly offbeat or funny. We might have been more convinced by footage of real people trying the coffee.
For another, this is a story that we’ve heard before, when Consumer Reports found that tasters preferred McDonald’s coffee to Starbucks. As the political pundits would say, maybe Dunkin’ needs to find its own narrative.
Click here to watch the ad.
