Starbucks Korea’s chief executive was fired over a campaign that references a bloody past incident. The “Tank Day” coffee tumbler promotion, launched Monday to mark the anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising suppression, has triggered demands to boycott Starbucks Korea and drawn a scathing rebuke from President Lee Jae Myung. Many believed the “tank” remark was a nod to vehicles used by the military administration in May 1980 to repress democracy protestors. Starbucks Korea halted the promotion just hours after it began.
Shinsegae, which holds a controlling share in the coffee business, said it was sorry for “inappropriate marketing” and replaced its top executive, Sohn Jeong-hyun. The promotion featured the English phrases “Tank Day” and was for their Tank Series drink tumblers touted to have “spacious volume” for a significant amount of coffee. Local sources said Starbucks Korea had initially stated that the Tank Series was just one of several tumbler series it was launching as part of a campaign running from 15 to 26 May.
We apologize sincerely for the inconvenience and concern this has caused our customers.” The event has been suspended and we will look at our internal protocols and improve on them to ensure this doesn’t happen again in future.
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