Dumb Starbucks Coffee, which parodies the design of a coffee giant chain store, appeared seemingly out of nowhere over the weekend as a pop-up store in a nondescript Hillhurst Avenue location in Los Feliz, Calif.
Brandon KirbyAn artist by the name of Marc Horowitz is taking credit on Twitter for the Dumb Starbucks parody pop-up shop, which became a major trending topic over the weekend and seen lines up of up to two hours of people waiting for free coffee served in cups that faithfully re-create the Starbucks logo with the word Dumb added. Much speculation has centered on who is behind the project, from an artist like Banksy to pranks by comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel and Nathan Fielder.
Comedy Central personality Fielder since held a press conference at the parody store revealing that he was responsible.
Earlier in the day, Horowitz (@marchorowitz) posted the following tweets:
“Would love to do interviews about #dumbstarbucks — just waiting for @TODAYshow or @jimmykimmel” as well as “my project is causing quite a stir – lol.”
He also posted a link to a page where a cursor types out “How to Build a Starbucks” on Google which then opens up a page with the search results.
PHOTOS: ‘Dumb Starbucks’: Inside the Parody Coffee Shop
Meanwhile, the @DumbStarbucks twitter feed this afternoon posted that the owner would make an announcement at 4 p.m. Monday at the pop-up shop.
STORY: ‘Dumb Starbucks’ Shop Appears in L.A.’s Los Feliz
Horowitz could not be reached for comment, but an art world source says Horowitz is only involved in the project and that others are also part of the coffee shop in Los Feliz. He’s said to be part of a loose group of L.A. artists that includes Petra Cortright, who posted Horowitz’s tweet on her Facebook page.
This morning Starbucks announced that it is evaluating how to respond to Dumb Starbucks.
Horowitz is an L.A.-based conceptual artist whose projects have included The Advice of Strangers in which, according to Artslant magazine, was a “month-long performative social experiment” in which he asked an online audience to be a “collective life coach; together they will create a wildly inventive web-based narrative artwork.” The project included 87 polls that included such questions as “What should I wear to the airport on Monday’s journey to Miami?” and “How should I spend my Thanksgiving with my mom?”
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In 2005, he gained national attention when he was working as a photo assistant on a Crate & Barrel catalog shoot and slyly wrote his cell phone number on a dry-erase board that was shown in the magazine that said “dinner w/ marc 510-872-7326.” He received thousands of phone calls.
One other clue: The Seattle Times has reported that, at the time of the Crate & Barrel move, he “regularly hands out free coffee to passers-by in a San Francisco park.”
