Omitted Information: The Starbucks Logo Is A Woman Spreading Her Legs

It is an image many of us see every day and is extremely recognizable to the American public, but what is the Starbucks logo depicting anyways? First of all, I should mention the significance of the brand name. "Starbuck" was actually a character in the novel Moby Dick. This leads us closer to the formation of the logo itself. If have already figured out on your own that the Starbucks logo is a mermaid; you are half-right. The logo is specifically of a siren; a Greek mythological creature defined as "one of a group of sea nymphs who by their sweet singing lured mariners to destruction on the rocks surrounding their island." The "sea nymph" is typically depicted as a beautiful woman mermaid with two tails. Of course, two tails is a bit more seductive to the male sailer than a single tailed creature with ambiguous reproductive organs. The original logo was plain to see, but today it is almost impossible to decipher without first viewing the logo's history.

A former Starbucks employee wrote of the change in design: The Starbucks logo shown in the parody is similar to one of the official logos the company used before it "cleaned up" the siren. The evolution of the siren in the logo has gone from a really seductive and wild-looking thing with exposed breasts and a navel, holding each end of a split tail around her ears (making one think that if she had naughty bits, you would certainly be seeing them); to a rather more comely version, still with breasts and the edges of the tail around the sides of her head; to one without visible nipples but still a navel and tail; to the Disney-esque thing seen today. As the company grew, they seemed to be cleaning her up for the lowest common denominator.(1)

It wasn't too far from the truth when cartoonist Kieron Dwyer made his infamous "Corporate Whore" logo-parody of the coffee giant.


The Original Starbucks Logo: Clearly depicting a female with her legs spread.


The Updated Logo: Stylized version of the original.


Today's Logo: A second version of the stylized logo with "explicit" content cropped out.

notes: 1. Salon.com, Hot water: Starbucks sues a citizen, 06/01/00, Letters To The Editor, Leslie Strom, 06/02/00