Simpsons writers pen animated Starbucks shorts
Three veteran Simpsons writers have repaid coffee chain Starbucks for all the caffeine they’ve consumed over the years by penning a series of animated shorts for the chain.
Joel Cohen, Rob LaZebnik and John Frink congregated at their local Starbucks for early morning inspiration for over three years whilst working on a film project in Los Angeles, during which time they became intimately aware of the joy and frustration represented coffee consumption and Wi-Fi access.
This latter facility lacked any entertaining content on the landing page to which every customer was directed, giving the trio an idea to create a mini web series.
LaZebnik recounted: “We noticed that it might be fun to have some animation thing on this landing page. That gave us the idea, and then we emailed Kevin Johnson, the now chief executive of Starbucks. He wrote right back and said, 'That sounds really cool.'"
The resulting Starbucks short it titled '1st and Main' and features a menagerie of anthropomorphic characters based on the personality traits of stereotypical customers, including a ‘bearista’ coffee maker.
The series will debut on Starbucks website this week before making an appearance on Wi-Fi landing pages from January.