{"id":29882,"date":"2026-05-26T05:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/29882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:24:07","slug":"starbucks-korean-sales-fall-after-backlash-to-tank-day-ad-campaign-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/29882\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks\u2019 Korean sales fall after backlash to \u2018Tank Day\u2019 ad campaign | Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coffee chain has seen \u2018very significant\u2019 drop in sales after campaign that evoked deadly crackdown, local operator says.<\/p>\n

By Reuters and The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Published On 26 May 202626 May 2026<\/p>\n

Starbucks Korea has suffered a \u201cvery significant\u201d drop in sales after a marketing campaign that evoked a brutal 1980 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters triggered a public outcry, according to the coffee chain\u2019s local operator.<\/p>\n

Shinsegae Group, whose subsidiary E-Mart owns the coffee chain in South Korea, has faced mounting criticism over its so-called \u201cTank Day\u201d campaign, launched on the anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, when the military government deployed troops and tanks to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

In a news conference on Tuesday, Shinsegae Group chairman Chung Yong-jin made a public apology and asked people not to take out any anger on Starbucks Korea employees and front-line staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take it very seriously, the fact that many people felt deep pain and anger because of Starbucks Korea\u2019s inappropriate marketing campaign,\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will take all responsibility for the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chung\u00a0also asked people not to take out their frustration on staff at Starbucks shops, saying the responsibility lies with management. There were no immediate reports of major incidents at stores.<\/p>\n

Chung issued his first apology on May 19, saying in a statement that the campaign caused \u201cdeep pain to the victims and bereaved families of the May 18 Democratization Movement as well as to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shinsegae\u00a0fired the head of Starbucks Korea<\/a> last week after apologising over the campaign. Starbucks Global also apologised and said that an investigation had begun.<\/p>\n

A Shinsegae official said sales had fallen sharply since the marketing controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile sales are not our main concern at the moment, we have seen a very significant drop,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s news conference, Jeon Sangjin, a senior Shinsegae Group executive, said the company had yet to find conclusive evidence that Starbucks Korea marketing employees intended to mock the pro-democracy movement, an accusation the employees have denied.<\/p>\n

However, he said some employees refused management requests to hand over their smartphones during a weeklong internal review.<\/p>\n

Jeon said the company would look at the results from the police inquiry, and any employee found to have intended to ridicule protesters would be fired.<\/p>\n

The anger over the campaign has triggered public calls for boycotts, amplified by government officials, including Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung, who said Starbucks products will no longer be used at government events and lamented the chain\u2019s \u201canti-historical behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s president, Lee Jae Myung, said on X last week that the campaign displayed \u201cinhumane and disgraceful behaviour by cheap profiteers who deny the values of the South Korean community, basic human rights and democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people are estimated to have died \u2060or gone missing when Chun Doo-hwan\u2019s military government cracked down on the protests in Gwangju.<\/p>\n

Many details remain unconfirmed, including who gave the order to open fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coffee chain has seen \u2018very significant\u2019 drop in sales after campaign that evoked deadly crackdown, local operator says.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[198,2630,119,31,16240,33],"class_list":["post-29882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-asia-pacific","tag-business-and-economy","tag-economy","tag-korea","tag-protests","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}