Starbucks scored the mother of product placements — from none other than the Mother of Dragons.

Eagle-eyed “Game of Thrones” fans noticed a drink that strongly resembled one of the Seattle coffee giant’s familiar coffee cups sitting on a table in front of Queen Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in Sunday night’s episode. And the incongruous paper cup has launched an Unsullied army’s worth of reactions on social media, as Starbucks is completely out of place in HBO’s Medieval drama where knights and Wildling warriors drink out of goblets and animal horns.

The show eventually responded to the cup controversy on Monday night through the official “Game of Thrones” Twitter account, joking that the latte was a “mistake” because Daenerys “had ordered an herbal tea.”

And by Tuesday morning, the offending cup had been digitally removed from the episode on HBO Go, which HBO confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter.

Still, the related memes that sprang forth may mean big money for Starbucks SBUX, +0.62% .

Stacy Jones, CEO of Hollywood Branded, which specializes in product placement and other entertainment marketing campaigns, told MarketWatch that HBO doesn’t accept pay for product placement in its shows because customers are subscribing to an ad-free experience in signing up for the premium cable network. But, if it did, and if “Thrones” took place in a contemporary setting where it made sense to slip in a Starbucks reference, then intentionally placing that cup in front of Daenerys would cost $250,000 in product-placement fees. (Neither Starbucks nor “Game of Thrones” responded to MarketWatch’s request for comment.)

“We’re saying this is a Super Bowl–sized television series. We’re comparing this to a ‘Transformer’ franchise, and ‘Transformer’s’ deals of this type are around $250,000 to $1 million,” Jones explained.

Indeed, “Game of Thrones,” in its eighth and final season, is the most popular show in HBO’s history. It topped “The Sopranos” when it hit 20 million viewers in 2014, reaching 25.7 million at its Season 6 peak, Variety reported. And “The Long Night” episode depicting the epic Battle of Winterfell last week drew 17.8 million views across all platforms, making it the most watched HBO episode ever, while inspiring a record 7.8 million–plus tweets.

See also:‘Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell was most-watched HBO episode ever

But this cup wouldn’t get max billing because it’s not clearly a Starbucks cup, and neither Dany nor any of the main characters are seen using it. “I’m putting it on the lower end because [of] the lower placement: the cup and the logo [are] not very clear; it’s not popping out, it’s very subtle; it’s not something interactive; it’s not lending itself to the story line; it’s not someone going into a Starbucks store,” Jones continued. “So it’s valuable, but it doesn’t have as much value as if the logo was front-and-center and facing the camera so that everyone could see it and read it.”

But the publicity value is another story. “The PR value on this is well over $1 million in word-of-mouth and how people are actually engaging — look at all of the memes that are being created,” Jones said. “It doesn’t even matter whether the brand on that cup is Starbucks or not, because so many people think that it is, and hundreds of thousands of people are already commenting on it, circling [the cup] in the scene [in their screen-capture images], and calling it out. I would say the value for Starbucks on this scale is well into the millions, plural, of dollars.”

Eric Smallwood, president Apex Marketing Group Inc., who specializes in advertising and branding services, valued the anachronistic cup at more than $11.6 million as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time after factoring in the TV and radio coverage, digital news coverage and social-media chatter.

Indeed, a Twitter spokeswoman told MarketWatch that Starbucks tweets were running at 10 times their average hourly tweets on Monday morning. “There have been more than 310,000 tweets today, and I’d say on an average normal day there are usually less than 100,000 tweets,” she said.

And these impressions will only continue to grow. “We are not even through the morning on the West Coast,” added Smallwood. “We haven’t even had TV, or the late-night-show coverage.”

Unfortunately, it’s not a win for the HBO T, +0.77% series. Fans who have already been divided on the final season — from plot points to the dimly lit battle in last week’s episode — accused the showrunners of dropping the ball in the show’s much anticipated final six episodes.

Add to that, now, this continuity miscue. “This was a mistake. This was something that someone missed on set that they certainly should have caught. It was definitely not something that would enhance the [show],” agreed Jones. “Anything that takes away from suspension of disbelief is going to be a negative for the show. But Starbucks should enjoy this as much as they possibly can; do something fun in stores, like a last-minute ‘Game of Thrones’–themed drink for the last two episodes, and take advantage of this.”

The Starbucks social-media team seemed to have gotten the message by Monday afternoon, tweeting, “TBH, we’re surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink,” and joking that the beverage is available “in the US, Canada, and The North.”