Stephen Colbert took time during “The Late Show” this week to give mention to a couple little Seattle companies.
In a mock commencement address in which the host set out to share “precious pearls of wisdom” that he has “stolen from the sea of experience,” Colbert gave grads some advice on Amazon, among other things.
“Get Amazon Prime,” Colbert said to laughs from his studio audience (3:25 mark in video). “Two-day shipping, movies, photo storage — you can’t go wrong.”
It’s advice that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would certainly stand behind.
In an address to shareholders last week, Bezos said, “Our goal with Amazon Prime, make no mistake, is to make sure that if you are not a Prime member, you are being irresponsible.” He was underscoring the significance of the $99/year membership program to the company and to many of its customers’ lives.
In another nod to a worldwide business born in Seattle, Colbert had some fun with Starbucks and its app that allows customers to order and pay ahead of time. He cited a Wall Street Journal story in which the newspaper said customers were pining for the old days of baristas misspelling their names.
“That’s true,” Colbert said. “Starbucks’ greatest strength has always been being bad at names. This is the company that named their shortest drink ‘tall.'”
The host went on to make the point that there are more important things in the world to be concerned about. He illustrated this with a series of cups misspelling everything from ISIS (Ices) to Muslims (Moose Limbs).
