Brands drop millions of dollars for the opportunity to associate with shows with big names. Product locations make money for television studios and stimulate revenue for products as well. But no one expected a period piece like that Game of Thrones to earn billions for the very current coffee company, Starbucks.
The wildest thing about the casual product placement that earned the multinational coffee chain so much extra revenue? In fact, it was not even a Starbucks Cup.
‘Game of Thrones’ took place in the Middle Ages
The events on Game of Thrones take place in the fictional setting of Westeros in an era before modern technology. The whole world consists of, however, the author of the book George RR Martin acknowledged that he was influenced by medieval England. He included references to The War of the Roses, which took place in the late 15th century.
No matter what the exact time frame, there is no doubt that every character from the award-winning HBO series will never drink vanilla necklaces from Starbucks. That’s what made it so shocking when a narrated paper bag appeared during an episode.
Fans were amazed to find an editing error on ‘Game of Thrones’
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Eagle-eyed fans saw the error during season 8 episode 4, “The Last of the Starks.” During a banquet scene at Winterfell, Daenerys Targaryen can be seen sitting next to a disposable coffee cup that looked surprisingly similar to one you’d get at Starbucks. The bag on the table was there by mistake. Editors removed it digitally from the episode two days later.
As expected, the internet went wild and mocked the bug. The whole incident called for a massive sales increase for Starbucks, although it was later revealed that the cup in question was just a generic craft cup and not at all from Starbucks.
The fake Starbucks cup earns bills for the coffee seller
According to CNBC, the wrong coffee head would cost six figures to place in a show as popular as Game of Thrones. But since it was a mistake, the free advertising plus viral nature of the mistake earned Starbucks an estimated $ 2.3 billion in revenue.
“This is a one-in-a-lifetime clash of opportunity for Starbucks,” marketing ex-Stacy Jones told the publication. “But really, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because what is not controlled or estimated is the word of mouth and social media on top.”
The cup earned 193,000 mentions in just 48 hours via social media.
Execs from ‘Game of Thrones’ had a hilarious reaction
In the end, the bag was just a simple mistake, but that did not stop HBO from issuing a statement about the incident.
“In response to questions from those who saw a coffee cup service in Sunday night’s episode Game of Thrones: The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea, ”HBO executives wrote, according to Insider.
After the controversial final episodes of the series, almost no one talks about the cup anymore when they wrestle with the consequences of Daenerys who became full of crazy queen and murdered everyone. Maybe she should always stick with herbal tea, after all.
