It’s Just a Water Bottle

The world can be a baffling place. That’s true in many important senses, but also in plenty of unimportant ones, and the urge to make order and meaning doesn’t necessarily select for relevance. That’s why, for the past two weeks, a huge chunk of the internet’s attention has been focused on one baffling phenomenon in particular: What, exactly, is a Stanley cup, and why are suburbanites willing to scuffle over it in their most sacred space (their local Target)?

Let’s recap. As the new year began, Stanley, a century-old company that for much of its history made reinforced lunch boxes and drinking vessels for outdoorsmen and blue-collar workers, launched three pink, limited-edition Valentine’s Day versions of its jumbo-size Quencher cups, all in different shades of pink and only available at Target. The third of these cups, which came out a few days after the first two, was the grandaddy of them all—a new addition to the brand’s ongoing partnership with, an argument erupted over who was cutting whom in line, fingers were pointed, and a store manager was summoned to referee. A few videos of and tepid interpersonal conflicts, plus one that appears to show store patrons trying to who had grabbed a box full of tumblers and made a run for it, did the rounds on TikTok before jumping to local news broadcasts and the generalized zeitgeist.