South Korean Starbucks to Close for History Training After 'Tank Day' Backlash
The chain will close all South Korea stores for three hours of training after a promotion sparked boycotts, a firing and police complaints.
- On Monday, Starbucks Korea announced all stores nationwide will close for half a day on June 22 for mandatory history training following a controversial promotional campaign that sparked public outrage.
- Public uproar began when the company ran a 'Tank Day' promotion on May 18, coinciding with the 46th anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju uprising, a crackdown that killed 165 civilians according to official figures.
- Critics targeted the phrase "Put it on the table with a sound of 'Tak!'" for evoking activist Park Jong-cheol's death, while the company reported a "sharp decline in sales" following protests in Seoul and Gwangju.
- Executives including Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin will participate as staff "receive education in historical awareness and social sensitivity through watching videos" to address the oversight.
- This event marks the first simultaneous store closure since Starbucks opened in South Korea in 1999, occurring after Shinsegae Group fired its Korea chief executive following the scandal.
72 Articles
72 Articles
All Starbucks branches in South Korea will close their doors for half a day next week. During that time, staff at some two thousand branches are required to brush up on their history because a failed marketing campaign has caused a huge uproar in the country. The action reminded many of the Gwangju massacre (1980), in which protesters were killed.
El Periódico
laprovincia.esThe employees of Starbucks will change for a few hours the frappuccinos for the lessons of History and Social Sensitivity in South Korea. The multinational coffee maker is not moved by a sudden concern for humanistic training but by the urgent need to suffocate a fire that threatens its annual balance: that caused by the mockery of the victims of an atrocious massacre. There is no memory in the country of a more vexatious and shameless advertisi…
Starbucks South Korea was severely criticised for the "Tank Day" advertising campaign. Boycott calls and sales losses led to the dismissal of the CEO.
There are things that are untouchable in South Korea’s recent democratic memory. The chain of Starbucks cafes, which enjoys enormous popularity in the Asian country, has crashed into one of them. The company’s South Korean subsidiary will simultaneously close down next week all its establishments so that employees will follow a lesson of historical awareness, after a failed brand promotion evoked the Gwangju massacre of 1980, one of the toughest…
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