Shallow Bucks

About

Shallow Bucks refers to a fake Starbucks promotion that was shared over Twitter. The promotion was to receive a free Starbucks drink after posting a screenshot of themselves listening to the song "Shallow" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper to receive a free drink.

Origin

On February 28th, 2019, Twitter user @fkanico^[2] began the scam to increase the chances of "Shallow" reaching number one on Billboard.^[1][5] The promotion states, "Starbucks is celebrating Lady Gaga’s Oscar win with a promotion for a free drink of choice! Simply post a screenshot of yourself listening to “Shallow” with the hashtag, #SHALLOWBUCKS for a free drink of choice! ☕️🌟Offer expires soon so hurry!" The tweet gained 945 retweets and 2,300 likes in six days (shown below).

Spread

On February 28th, 2019, other Twitter users passed around the fake promotion presumably with the same goal in mind. Twitter user @sleazyversace^[3] stated "IT ACTUALLY WORKED! thank you so much @Starbucks." The tweet accumulated 150 likes in six days (shown below, left). LadyGaga fan account @LGMonsterFacts^[4] also tweeted that the promotion works (shown below, right). The tweet gained 500 retweets and 1,500 likes in six days.

In the next couple of days, Twitter users start to recognize that the promotion was a scam. On March 1st, Twitter @arguablyjo tweeted a GIF of a frustrated woman with the caption "Imagine working at Starbucks and someone coming in asking for #shallowbucks" (shown below).

On March 2nd, Starbucks Twitter account @starbuckshelp^[6] began responding to various questions regarding #shallowbucks stating, "Hello, I'm so sorry for any confusion, but this is not a valid Starbucks offer. This post is completely false. We are investigating to determine how this fake post was created and circulated. Thank you. -Kat" (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References