The brand recognition of Starbucks coffee, and its elevation to a catchword denoting the ultimate corporate commodification of the anti-corporate, "slacker" lifestyle, is all the more phenomenal for the company's marked refusal to achieve that status through the medium of advertising. A chain of retail coffee outlets that offer fresh specialty drinks and beans to go, the Seattle-based company expanded across North America at a quick pace during the 1990s, and by early 1998 Starbucks stores could boast a combined foot-traffic count of five million visitors weekly. Because of Starbucks, Americans can now pronounce the foreign terms "latte" and "barista" when discussing complex coffee beverages and the food-service professionals who make them.

Starbucks' corporate origins date back to 1971, but the company did not really begin its march to massive success until 1986, when a Starbucks executive, Howard Schultz, created a coffeehouse in Seattle to serve upscale espresso drinks. He called...