Zen 605: Starbucks Coffee rebrands by dropping the words 'Starbucks' and 'coffee' from its logo

Starbucks said: "What is really important here is an evolutionary refinement of the logo, which is a mirror image of the strategy."

Leading brand consultants were a touch more succinct.

"I think it's nuts," said James Gregory, CEO of Core Brand.

"What's it going to be - the coffee formerly known as Starbucks?"

All that's left is the weird two-tailed mermaid thing. This, apparently, is meant to signal to the world that the leading purveyors of lukewarm beverages are ready to move 'beyond coffee', in much the same way as British Petroleum rebranded as BP to move 'beyond petroleum', but sadly not 'beyond parody'.

It also follows hard on the heels of Gap's disastrous rebrand, dropping their iconic blue box for a Helvetica clip art monstrosity last October. Happily they had the good sense to listen to the punters and switch back.

With Starbucks it's hard to care, but entertaining nonetheless to watch massive corporations disappearing up their own wazoos in pursuit of stupid ideas.