KG,
I have never known Starbucks to offer the Wi-Fi free. They have a contract with Verizon here in TX and it's $30/mo., which I consider steep ($360/yr?) Some Mom and Pop places are free and some municipalities are thinking of free wireless inside their city limits in order to attract more customers and businesses. Not a bad idea.
As far as their jumping in to sponsor "Akeela and the Bee", it didn't seem to work too well. With 2,195 screens they only averaged $2,738 per screen and #8 for the week, garnering almost $7M for the week.
When I saw the small handout flyers at Starbucks I thought that maybe this is a good sign, but to be honest with you, it seems a half-hearted attempt on Starbucks part. Kinda like going into the store and asking permission to put up a small sign advertising an event and the business saying, "okay, but keep it sort of out of the way so it won't get in the way of our doing business." It obviously was a dud as far as an ad campaign goes, so I doubt if they realize their attempt was pitiful and didn't do the movie any good. Some half-baked idea in the boatd room of Starbucks with an unenthusiastic PR and Ad firm saying "sure, whatever you want."
