“Hey girl, that’s a nice stick you’ve got there!”

Note: This post was contributed by guest writer, Emily Gallagher. She’ll be covering news about ad creep, artists projects, and other items of interest to us here at the Anti-Advertising Agency. This will allow us to keep the site active while I work on other things (as well as some upcoming surprises from the AAA). If you have a tip for Emily or would like to make a contribution of your own, please contact us. –Steve Lambert

Good news! Former Boeing executive Tom Burns has solved two of North America’s most pressing problems in one little, instantly disposable product! Yes, now coffee shops will FINALLY have a place to promote their business while preventing scalding drips of coffee from sloshing out of a to-go cup’s sippy hole. StixToGo, the answer to our prayers, is a thick plastic plug with an enormous eye-level protuberance to stick an advertisement on. One can guess that the plug will remain in the sippyhole for a duration of 5 seconds, but the website avoids using the phrase, “instant pieces of junk” and assures us that customers and coffee house owners love StixToGo. After all, Angie Cummins tells us in her testimonial that it’s great for “getting brand recognition when your customers take their drinks out in public!” If a coffee operator needs a bit of money on the side, she can sell the space which STG has provided to other coffee related companies– like aspirin, breath mints, or cars.

StixToGo has even won awards– it’s placed third in trade competitions twice, behind such imperative products as “Think in a Box,” a card deck of 300 meaningful questions to stimulate conversation with family and friends.

If the need to purchase 300 cards to have a conversation with your closest friends isn’t depressing enough, fancy this– StixToGo claims it is a “social icebreaker” as well. Social pariah Amanda Humes tells us, “It is fun to see the look on a New Yorker’s face when they get something fun like this- priceless! They are an excellent icebreaker and conversation starter :)” I guess when coffee shops are more interested in printing promotional material all over everything in sight than creating a stimulating and friendly environment, then discussing StixToGo during a walk to the garbage can is the only meaningful human contact we can hope for.