Did you know Starbucks got its name from Moby Dick? (2024)

When work and fun mix, it can make for some interesting details in an organisation. Take a look at some of the pop culture and literary love that companies have shown for their favourite fictional characters.

A centre about nothing

A few days ago, WikiLeaks published the locations of over 100 of Amazon’s data centres and one in particular stood out — Vandelay Industries. Ring a bell? The name is a nod to the hit TV show Seinfeld and an episode that sees George Costanza assuring an unemployment office that he was on the verge of landing a job at… Vandalay Industries. Amazon uses multiple pseudonyms to keep their locations secretive but at least we know that Manassas, Virginia has a great sense of humour.

No regular joe
Starbucks got its name from another classic — the book Moby Dick. The coffee chain was originally going to be called either Cargo House or Pequod after Captain Ahab’s ship in Moby Dick. But when the brand consultant, who also designed the chain’s logo, produced an old 1800s map, the name of a mining town, Starbos, which features in the book, stood out which led the brand consultant to think of the first mate on the Pequod — Starbuck.

Quite the troopers
The force is strong with Team Indus. The team that came together in 2010 with the aim of winning the Google Lunar X Prize competition announced in 2007 has a number of people from fields such as science, tech and media. And though their backgrounds may be diverse, their love for 'Star Wars' is unanimous. So much so that they’ve forgone the normal designations and instead, call themselves the fleet commander, jedi master of structures and storm troopers in a nod to the hit franchise.

To space and beyond

For NASA, on occasion, the ‘beyond’ means a movie poster. The seemingly straight shooting crew often promote their upcoming missions like an upcoming movie by photoshopping themselves into posters. Since 2007, NASA thought it would be fun to add a twist to their crew posters and has been making expedition artworks featuring their crew in pop culture favourites such as 'Star Wars' (but, of course) and 'Reservoir Dogs'.

Pushing the limit
Quite literally. The Tesla Model S has a feature where the volume control cranks up to 11. And it wasn’t done just because Elon Musk wanted to push boundaries; but as a tribute to the mockumentary 'This Is Spinal Tap' — starring actor-director Christopher Guest. In the comedy movie, a scene involves the guitarist (Guest) and a friend discussing an amp that goes up to 11.

Did you know Starbucks got its name from Moby Dick? (2024)
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