Starbucks’ Korean sales fall after backlash to ‘Tank Day’ ad campaign
Key takeaways
- Coffee chain has seen ‘very significant’ drop in sales after campaign that evoked deadly crackdown, local operator says.
- 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.
- “I take it very seriously, the fact that many people felt deep pain and anger because of Starbucks Korea’s inappropriate marketing campaign,” Chung said.
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Coffee chain has seen ‘very significant’ drop in sales after campaign that evoked deadly crackdown, local operator says.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Chung Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group, bows to apologise in Seoul, South Korea, on May 26, 2026 [Lee Jin-man/AP]By Reuters and The Associated Press Published On 26 May 202626 May 2026Starbucks Korea has suffered a “very significant” 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’s local operator.
Shinsegae Group, whose subsidiary E-Mart owns the coffee chain in South Korea, has faced mounting criticism over its so-called “Tank Day” campaign, launched on the anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, when the military government deployed troops and tanks to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations.