Dunkin' Donuts Brews Up Showdown With Starbucks

Dunkin' Donuts is aiming to punch holes in Starbucks' share of the coffee market with an aggressive new ad campaign, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The ads portray Dunkin' Donuts coffee as being the choice of "hard-working Americans" and boast of having beaten Starbucks' house blend in blind taste tests. The Massachusetts-based chain has even launched a website for the campaign: dunkinbeatstarbucks.com.

"Try the coffee that won," urges the ad. Only 75 of Dunkin’s nearly 6,000 US stores are west of the Mississippi, but the chain has vowed to move into Starbucks' Washington home turf as soon as it can. A Starbucks spokesperson said she’s not surprised that Dunkin' is striving for the comparison, as Starbucks "more or less introduced the coffee culture to the US."
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