海角大神

After creating a stir in the streets of Los Angeles this past winter, 鈥淒umb Starbucks" is coming back. But only on your television.

You may remember Dumb Starbucks from this past February: It appeared in a Los Angeles strip mall selling聽鈥淒umb Mocha Frappuccinos"聽without fanfare. Soon, lines snaked around the block, and local officials were threatening to shut the place down. It turned out to be an stunt for an episode of 鈥淣athan for You,鈥� a Comedy Central series that launched its second season at the beginning of July.

The Dumb Starbucks episode of 鈥淣athan for You鈥� is set to air this coming Tuesday, July 29. Now in its second season, the show is a send-up of the 鈥渂usiness improvement鈥� genre of reality TV, comprised of series like 鈥淜itchen Nightmares,鈥� and 鈥淭abatha鈥檚 Salon Takeover,鈥� where the host swoops into a struggling business and, with a little tough love and a lot of renovations, turns things around.

In this version Nathan Fielder, a comedian and self-proclaimed graduate of 鈥渙ne of Canada鈥檚 top business schools with really good grades,鈥� lends his services to real businesses as well. Only, he plays a dolt who dreams up wildly misguided yet often effective ways to get customers鈥� attention, and the business owners are usually too nice to tell him no. In the first season, he convinces a pizzeria owner to offer an 鈥�8-minute or less鈥� delivery guarantee or give customers a free pizza 鈥� only the free pizza is about an inch wide. In the Season 2 premiere, he has an auto mechanic give repair estimates while hooked up to a lie detector test.

He also hatches his own entrepreneurial schemes, often to test the boundaries of regulations or 鈥渢erms of use鈥� rules. With Dumb Starbucks, Mr. Fielder realized that under laws that protect parodies from copyright infringement, he could technically open an exact rip-off of a real Starbucks using the logo, colors, drink names, and other insignia as long as it was being used in the context of a parody. By putting 鈥渄umb鈥� before everything in the store, he did the bare minimum to qualify. The store featured everything from 鈥淒umb Caramel Macchiatos鈥� to CDs labeled 鈥淒umb Norah Jones Duets.鈥�

Starbucks, not to mention California health inspectors, were not amused. Dumb Starbucks could serve food, Fielder claimed, because it was an art installation, not a food service establishment.The coffee company threatened a lawsuit, and Dumb Starbucks was quickly shut down for not having proper food and drink vendor licenses.聽But the story flooded national news outlets and generated a ton of publicity for Fielder鈥檚 show, which premiered in June to far more robust media coverage than the first season.

鈥淲e thought that Dumb Starbucks might be a local food story,鈥� Fielder told Rolling Stone Thursday. "We never thought it would strike a chord with the mainstream media. I didn't realize this mystery angle would be such a big hook. The fun thing is, we embraced that element of it on the show.鈥�

It鈥檚 not the first time Fielder has displayed a genius for catching the attention of the news cycle. For the first season, he created a fake video of a pig saving a goat as an effort to drum up business for a local petting zoo and posted it on YouTube. It exploded on the Internet, and several outlets, including NBC and CNN, quickly seized upon the footage of a goat struggling in the water and a pig swimming up to nudge him to shore as real.

So what lessons in business can we learn from 鈥淣athan for You鈥�? For one, finding loopholes in regulations can be a good way to set yourself apart. Also, details like the name of your business or good signage and directions can be less important than a killer gimmick or a really good viral video.*

*Don鈥檛 follow any of these rules.