Starbucks Misspells Names on Purpose, According to One Conspiracy Theory

For coffee customers with uncommon names or name spellings (the Asankas, Yisells, and Bozhidars among us), it's rare that a barista gets it right. But even the Erins of the world inexplicably end up with cups labeled “Airinn.” Are Starbucks employees really this confused?

According to a new video from Super Deluxe, they all know exactly what they’re doing. To test the theory that Starbucks's chronic misspellings are part of some far-reaching corporate conspiracy, they sent Super Deluxe employee Molly to five different locations. Her easy-to-spell name went through the Starbucks machine and came out four different ways (two Mollys, one Mali, one Molli, and one … Mommy).

They use this as evidence to support their claim that Starbucks is actually misspelling names on purpose to trick customers into giving them free advertising. The more ridiculous the botched name is, the more likely consumers are to share a photo on social media. You’d think this would be negative publicity for the brand, but the video asserts that “that innocent scribble on the side of your pumpkin spice latte is tugging at the subconscious of your friends to go out and buy pumpkin spice lattes of their own.”

It’s a tempting theory, but it’s hard to believe that hilarious misspellings are covered in employee training. The more likely explanation is that your barista is tired, they have a line stretching to the door, and they assume that if they scrawl a combination of letters that vaguely resemble the name you just muttered you’ll be able to figure it out. If you decide to give Starbucks free publicity on Tumblr afterward—that’s on you.