How a Starbucks marketing stunt spiralled into mass boycotts in South Korea

A botched tumbler promotion on the anniversary of a pro-democracy massacre unleashed a boycott, police investigation and political firestorm

I t was a PR nightmare: customers smashing Starbucks branded tumblers and mugs as fans deleted loyalty apps and cashed out prepaid balances. Amid the uproar, government ministries cut ties with the coffee chain and apology notices were pasted on Starbucks stores across South Korea .

Hours after launching a marketing campaign called “Tank Day” for its new “Tank” coffee tumbler range on 18 May, Starbucks Korea found itself at the centre of a cultural storm that would force a billionaire chairman to apologise on national television, and see a chief executive sacked . The controversy reverberated all the way to the South Korean president’s office.

Starbucks’ Tank Series tumblers and discount campaign was designed to promote “spacious volume” for bigger coffees. But the specific date of the promotion’s launch, and its imagery and wording, reopened the painful wounds of a 46-year-old massacre in South Korea and dictatorship-era torture scandal.

Starbucks cancelled the promotion hours after it launched, and its CEO, Son Jeong-hyun, was fired that same day. But it was too late. The anger had already spread, with videos of people smashing the Starbucks mugs and tumblers circulated on social media.

Protests were held outside stores and people were incensed Starbucks had launched a tumbler called “tank” on 18 May, and that the coffee chain was declaring it “Tank Day”.

Known locally as 5/18, the 18th of May is the anniversary of a 1980 massacre in Gwangju. Over 10 violent days, paratroopers crushed pro-democracy protests against military strongman Chun Doo-hwan . Victims’ groups say hundreds were killed.

There was also a problem with a slogan the Starbuck campaign used: “thwack on the desk”. It echoed a notorious cover story used by police after the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chul . Authorities at the time initially claimed Park died because an officer had used his fist to “hit the desk with a thwack”.