Starbucks Korea will close stores for a history lesson

And the Kendall Jenner Pepsi Award for Insensitive Marketing Campaign goes to Starbucks Korea: After launching a promotion that was widely criticized for making light of an infamous massacre, the coffee giant’s South Korean stores will close early next Monday for mandatory history and sensitivity training, Starbucks Korea announced yesterday.

What happened: To celebrate its new steel “Tank” coffee tumblers, Starbucks Korea declared “Tank Day” on May 18…the anniversary of the country’s 1980 military crackdown that killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju. It gets worse: The campaign’s slogan, “Thwack it on the table!” mirrored a false statement police gave after killing a pro-democracy student years later. Marketers reportedly chose it after asking AI for suggestions.

Starbucks Korea canceled the campaign and fired its CEO within hours, but the damage was done:

• Videos of South Koreans smashing the “Tank” tumblers were all over social media.
• Police booked the CEO and the billionaire chairman of Starbucks Korea’s parent company as criminal suspects, accused of insulting the Gwangju victims and their relatives.
• Card payment volumes at South Korea’s Starbucks locations dropped by 26% in one week, according to market data.

“We are deeply sorry for an unacceptable marketing incident,” Starbucks Corporation said. The coffee giant licenses its brand in South Korea (its third-largest market), but doesn’t hold equity there.—ML