South Korean Starbucks boss apologizes for ad campaign that evoked massacre
Chung bowed three times and said Shinsegae would cooperate with police after the campaign triggered boycotts and a “very significant” sales drop, officials said.
- On Tuesday, Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin issued his second apology in two weeks, bowing three times during a televised statement pleading for forgiveness from democracy activists' families and the public over Starbucks Korea's Tank Day campaign.
- Starbucks Korea sparked outrage by declaring May 18 as Tank Day to promote a large tumbler, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising brutally suppressed by General Chun Doo-hwan's forces that killed 162 civilians and injured over 2,600.
- The campaign's slogan 'Thwack it on the table!' referenced a 1987 police statement covering up activist Park Jong-chol's torture death, while the May 18 date also coincided ominously with the 2014 Sewol Ferry tragedy in which 299 people died.
- Starbucks Korea CEO Sohn Jeong-hyun was fired immediately after the campaign launch, and Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung banned Starbucks products from government events, while public boycott calls spread rapidly across consumers.
- Police opened investigations after complaints from Gwangju victims' families, while Chung's first apology on May 19 preceded the in-person statement, with politicians weaponizing the scandal ahead of June 3 Local Elections to gain support from both boycott advocates and far-right movements.
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South Korea’s Starbucks furor revives an illiberal habit
South Korea’s latest Starbucks controversy is not only about a badly judged marketing campaign. It is about a recurring political habit: When public outrage gathers force, powerful actors treat collective denunciation as a substitute for due process and proportionate judgment. The result is a modern form of meongseokmari-style justice. Meongseokmari literally means “rolling someone in […] The post South Korea’s Starbucks furor revives an illiber…
Starbucks Korea chief apologizes for massacre-themed marketing promotion
Chung Yong-jin, the retail tycoon in charge of Starbucks Korea, apologized yesterday for a marketing campaign that made fun of a 1980 massacre of pro-democracy protestors. It was the executive's second apology in two weeks; he bowed three times during his televized statement. — Read the rest The post Starbucks Korea chief apologizes for massacre-themed marketing promotion appeared first on Boing Boing.
In South Korea, the Starbucks coffee brand has been in turmoil for a week. The issue is: a controversial advertising campaign referring to a massacre of civilians during the country's democratization movement in the 1980s. This controversy has led to a boycott of the brand for some, others claim their support for the brand. A country divided around coffee as it approaches municipal elections on June 3.
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