Starbucks Korea Shutting Down 2,000 Stores After Pro-Dictatorship Marketing Mess Up

Starbucks is temporarily shutting down 2 ,000 plus locations next week after a marketing campaign exploded into a full -blown national controversy.So all locations in South Korea, and apparently the screw -up happened on May 18th when Starbucks Korea launched its Tank Day promotion to sell a new line of tumblers.Which might sound tame enough until you realize they launched it on May 18th.That's the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju uprising.It's actually one of the most painful and politically sensitive events in modern Korean history.And it's when 600 to 2000 students protesting against military coup were massacred.

And it also doesn't stop there, because the campaign reportedly used the slogan, thwack on the desk, for how the Tumblr would slam on the desk because of its size.And that's actually almost exactly what the government said in the 1980s to explain away the torture and killing of a student activist, Park Jung -chul.

And so the outrage, it was immediate, and it was followed by a series of boycotts.And if you don't know, Koreans know how to boycott.They have a history of ostracizing companies for stuff like this.It's just usually against Japan.And so as far as Starbucks, they've been seeing their sales tanking.With the CEO of Starbucks Korea getting fired, government agencies cutting ties, and Starbucks, they've spent weeks apologizing.

this shows how serious this backlash has become.You have Starbucks Korea saying that all of its roughly 2000 stores are gonna close early on June 22nd so that employees and even execs can undergo mandatory history and social sensitivity training.It's reportedly the first nationwide shutdown of Starbucks Korea stores since the company entered the country in 1999.And it's definitely gonna be one of the most expensive reminders that maybe before launching a marketing campaign to Google the date and slogans first.