Starbucks version of holiday ads start

By Melissa Allison

Seattle Times business reporter

Ready or not, Starbucks will begin spreading holiday cheer today with Christmas décor, holiday coffee drinks and freebies galore.

The world's largest coffee-shop chain will hand out subway passes to people in New York and spring for free cab rides in Boston and San Francisco.

It will buy people spins around the holiday carousel at Seattle Center and buy out entire theaters for plays, so that anyone going to buy a ticket will be told that Starbucks has it covered.

In Portland, Denver and Washington, D.C., Starbucks will launch its third annual round of "coffee on cars," in which cab drivers and others drive around with a Starbucks coffee cup on their car roofs until someone stops to tell them. The Good Samaritan gets a free cuppa.

More...