{"id":261816,"date":"2026-05-25T01:06:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/uncategorized\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:06:51","slug":"starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/social\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks Korea Faces Backlash Over &#8216;Tank Day&#8217; Marketing Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Translation result<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0083\/image-9191e424-6083-41b2-b018-76f2e128bc70.jpeg\" alt=\"\uc815\uc6a9\uc9c4\" \uc2e0\uc138\uacc4\uadf8\ub8f9 \ud68c\uc7a5. [\ub274\uc2dc\uc2a4] class=\"img_LSize\"> [Herald Economy = Reporter Na Eun-jung] Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin will issue a second public apology on May 26 after controversy over Starbucks Korea\u2019s \u201cTank Day\u201d promotion spiraled out of control.<\/p>\n<p>On May 24, Shinsegae announced that Chairman Chung intends to apologize in person to \u201ceveryone hurt by Starbucks Korea\u2019s inappropriate marketing on the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement memorial day.\u201d The company said he will deliver a public apology at 9 a.m. on May 26 at the Chosun Palace in Gangnam, Seoul, and will publish the results of the group\u2019s internal investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Starbucks faced backlash after running a May 18 promotion called \u201cTank Day,\u201d the anniversary of the Gwangju uprising. The company sold a tank-themed tumbler series, labeled the promotion \u201cTank Day,\u201d and used phrases such as \u201cthud on the desk,\u201d a line that evoked the police\u2019s false explanations surrounding the 1987 torture death of Park Jong-chul.<\/p>\n<p>Chung dismissed Son Jeong-hyun, chief executive of Starbucks Korea (SCK Company), and the executives responsible the day the controversy broke. On May 19, he issued a public apology, saying the marketing was \u201cinappropriate and inexcusable, even on a memorial day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Lee Jae-myung criticized the promotion on social media, calling it \u201can inhuman act that denies the community, basic human rights, and democratic values of the Republic of Korea,\u201d which intensified the backlash. The controversy has not subsided, particularly after critics noted that Starbucks released a \u201cSiren Classic Mug\u201d on April 16 last year \u2014 the 10th anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster \u2014 and that Chung had frequently posted the slogan \u201cDestroy Communism\u201d on his social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the civic group People\u2019s Livelihood Countermeasures Committee (Seominwi) filed a complaint against Chung and former CEO Son, and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is investigating the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shinsegae&#8217;s CEO Jung Yong-jin will apologize for the controversial Starbucks &#8216;Tank Day&#8217; marketing on the 26th after public backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0083\/thumb-5e5d0677-7b32-4589-a8e8-e14a78ed54d6.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Starbucks Korea Faces Backlash Over &#039;Tank Day&#039; Marketing Scandal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shinsegae&#039;s CEO Jung Yong-jin will apologize for the controversial Starbucks &#039;Tank Day&#039; marketing on the 26th after public backlash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/social\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ko_KR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Starbucks Korea Faces Backlash Over &#039;Tank Day&#039; Marketing Scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shinsegae&#039;s CEO Jung Yong-jin will apologize for the controversial Starbucks &#039;Tank Day&#039; marketing on the 26th after public backlash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/social\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"nonhyeon-ilbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T16:06:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T16:06:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0083\/image-9191e424-6083-41b2-b018-76f2e128bc70.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/social\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/social\/2026\/05\/25\/starbucks-korea-faces-backlash-over-tank-day-marketing-scandal\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3\"},\"headline\":\"Starbucks Korea Faces Backlash Over &#8216;Tank Day&#8217; 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