In 2008, some McDonald’s franchises in the Seattle area erected a billboard in sight of the Starbucks headquarters that simply said “four bucks is dumb.” In addition, those same McDonald’s locations started unsnobbycoffee.com to help promote the new espresso drinks (James, 2008). Starbucks did not respond in kind, claiming to be taking the high road and that its customer base is different. McDonald’s USA President Don Thompson said the company “told the franchisees ‘That’s not the way we do it,’ and they pulled the billboard down” (Jargon, 2009).