It’s funny how things come full circle.

After this Thursday was filled with classes, interviews, and more coffees than I should have consumed, I found myself lying in bed that night, unable to sleep, and deep down the internet rabbit hole.

Usually, none of the information I come across in these hours is very useful. However, whilst scrolling through Twitter, one retweet caught my eye.

It said something along the lines of: “What if Starbucks employees are instructed to purposely spell your name wrong, so you post it on your social media account for free advertising?”

This one made me think. Too often do I open up a Snapchat or Instagram story, or once in a while a Facebook or Twitter posting, and see the classic white cup, with someone’s name butchered in permanent marker.

This often ends up being some of the only posts on my feed that actually draws a reaction from me. Usually it’s a scoff, and I ask myself in my head, “how can they possibly screw _______’s name up?”

Now I think I’ve found the answer.

When you think about it, this is absolutely brilliant marketing. In the era of social media platforms monetizing themselves to bring in ad revenue from every size of business, Starbucks has found a way to cheat the system.

They leverage their own customers, each with their own different following, to post about their business, in a way that is indirect and seems like they didn’t even mean to do it.

In this age of marketing, however, I find it hard to believe that anything a company does is by accident.

It’s been about 6 months since I boycotted Tim Horton’s, so Starbucks has found its way into my coffee regimen more often since then. Now that I’m a 30-second walk away from one at my apartment, I decided to take a walk down there this morning.

I got my cold brew, and on the sticker that they print off (this particular Starbucks doesn’t believe in saving trees, I guess) there was all the evidence I needed.

Schylar. Not Skylar. Not even Skyler. I would have even expected Tyler before Schylar.

That was all the ammunition I thought I needed before writing this post today. However, just to be sure, I enlisted another source; an old friend who formerly worked at Starbucks in high school.

She said that she generally spelled people’s names right, and if she ever screwed one up, it was a genuine mistake. Either she couldn’t hear them correctly or was in too much of a rush. Both of those are pretty believable, but I am sticking to my argument.

I think the next step for this is for someone to go undercover as a Starbucks employee and work until the point where someone admits that they spell names wrong on purpose.

Then we will take the audio from our hidden mic, and piece together a blistering exposé that will be seen by millions.

Is anyone here looking for a job?