McDonald's billboard in sight of Starbucks headquarters declaring, "four bucks is dumb."

Earlier: Coffee Smackdown: In new ad drive, Dunkin' Donuts is claiming a taste-test victory over Starbucks
If Dunkin' Donuts' taste test commercials were the schoolyard equivalent of blowing spitballs at the coffee giant from afar, then the latest from McDonald's is like pulling a wedgie. Starbucks employees driving northbound can see the billboard on their way into the city.

Another billboard slogan jabs, "large is the new grande." The two phrases are displayed on 140 billboards in Western Washington, some of them near Starbucks cafes.

"The billboard placement was done because we picked high visibility locations," said Alan Finkelstein, who owns four McDonald's in King County. "We really wanted to point out that ordering an espresso at McDonald's is quick and simple. Small, medium and large. It's easy."

Earlier this year, McDonald's started unsnobbycoffee.com to promote the launch of espresso drinks in the Seattle market.

Will Starbucks respond in kind? Unlikely.

While the coffee wars received much media and Wall Street trumpeting this year, Starbucks has been mostly silent, maintaining that its customer base is different.

Starbucks could fire back that not all of its coffee costs four bucks, or that extra cents help pay for health care for baristas. (A 12-ounce cup of brew starts at $1.40 at Starbucks, a penny more than the average McDonald's brew price. A small McDonald's latte costs $1.99 compared with $2.45 to $3.15 at Starbucks.)

Instead, it is fighting back in a more subtle way. Executives have hinted that Starbucks is taking the high road.

"We get a lot of questions on the competition and that everyone seems to be picking on Starbucks through their advertising and try to reposition Starbucks as expensive or snobby, and, boy, when is Starbucks going to start advertising and join in that coffee conversation?" Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer Terry Davenport told investors last week in New York.

"We're not going to get into that conversation. We're not going to get sucked into the, 'My coffee is better than your coffee,' price point type of coffee conversation. We're going to play at a much higher level."

Starbucks is relatively new to the advertising game after two decades of building its brand on word of mouth. However, armed with newly hired advertising agency BBDO New York, Starbucks placed two commercials recently. One, which ran during the "Saturday Night Live" show before Election Day, advertised that Starbucks would give out free coffee Nov. 4.

The second ran on the heavily traveled Wednesday before Thanksgiving, on the Weather Channel and CNN, to let customers know that Starbucks would be donating portions of coffee sales to help African AIDS victims.

The coffee giant also is turning to cheaper modes of advertising via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
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