Starbucks Made A Product Placement Deal In A Florida High School's Production Of 'Romeo & Juliet'

We spend a lot of time here talking about the best places for marketers to spend their ad budgets in the new digital economy.

But alongside the digital channels that have cropped up in recent years is a new marketing platform you might not have thought about: your local high school's production of Romeo & Juliet.

According to a story by The Wall Street Journal, school drama departments have lost funding over the years, and some of them are turning to product placement to fill in the gaps.

At Melbourne High School in Florida, the students are putting on a version of Romeo & Juliet set in grunge-era Seattle, where the Montagues and Capulets are led by the CEOs of Microsoft and Starbucks, respectively.

As such, a local Starbucks store is donating cups, coffee, and pastries to the school to sell at intermission in exchange for a promise that actors in the play will drink from Starbucks branded cups onstage and a shoutout in the playbill. The play is one of seven Melbourne High School will put on this year, at a total cost of about $30,000.

WSJ reports that other high schools have inked product placement deals with a local pizza shop and bottled water company Crystal Rock.