Promotional Cups

It’s as if there is more diversity among coffee mugs than there is in the human population, as you will quickly notice if you pay a quick visit to any site that sells them.  The differences can be cosmetic and only “skin deep” imprinting difference, or can be as dramatic as different shapes and material.  Unfortunately, not all of this diversity is a good thing.  Everyone wants to get a unique looking mug out there since there’s hundreds of thousands already out there and “unique” can mean a lot of things.

Disco is Still Alive!

Fake wood!  It isn’t just for station wagons from the 70s anymore, and if you thought wood paneling ever went like I did, apparently we’re completely wrong.  Yes, woodgrain coffee mugs.  Why does anyone want one?  I don’t think anyone does, but it seemed like a good idea to whoever designed it.  Even if you could choose the color of the “wood” look on the mug (which you generally can’t) and get it to match the wood on your desk, I can’t imagine you still really wanting one.  Wood really looks good in some situations, but fake wood finishing on anything except furniture needs to go away forever!

Mmmm, Sweaty Feet

Cups and mugs with special shapes are another bad idea.  Lots of the custom shapes I see are, strangely, heads of famous people or heads of characters.  Nothing warms me up in the morning like a hot cup of joe poured directly out of the skull of George Washington.  Patriotism at its finest!  As an added bonus, even when they’re not intended to be a caricature they inevitable look cartoony or ugly… or both.

Here’s another great example of a cute idea for some other product, but a bad shape for something someone will be drinking out of: ski boot shaped mugs.  I want nothing more than to imagine the sweat build up of a nice pair of warm and tight ski boots mixing with my morning beverage of choice.  Add a splice of lemon to really give it a kick while you’re at it!

How the heck are these supposed to be washed, either?  They have lots of little nooks and crannies and heaven forbid it sits in your sink long enough for your remaining drink to stain or harden.  Plus, I don’t really have enough cupboard space the way it is, and I’m not sure how the heck I’d find a space for one of these creative mugs that isn’t on the top shelf and guaranteeing I’ll never use it more than once.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under Mugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.