Starbucks Korea to give staff history training after backlash over marketing campaign in South Korea

[SEOUL] Starbucks Korea will shut all stores in South Korea at 3pm on Jun 22 for staff training on historical awareness and social sensitivity, the operator Shinsegae Group said on Monday (Jun 15), following public backlash over a marketing campaign.

The coffee chain faced widespread criticism and suffered a “very significant” drop in sales after last month’s campaign that evoked a brutal 1980 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Shinsegae’s affiliate E-Mart owns Starbucks Korea, which launched its ‘Tank Day’ tumbler promotion on the anniversary of ​the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, when the military government deployed troops and tanks to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations.

Starbucks Korea headquarters staff and executives from Shinsegae’s E-Mart division will undergo the same training on Jun 17 at the group’s in-house training centre, while Shinsegae chairman Chung Yong-jin and affiliate CEOs will attend a separate session on Jun 24, the group said.

Shinsegae said the move reflected how seriously it viewed the recent marketing controversy and its commitment to preventing a recurrence. Chung previously apologised publicly over the controversy.

The history awareness lecture, led by a history professor from Sungkyunkwan University, will review the major events in South Korea’s modern and contemporary history since the 1950s and discuss how they should be understood, it said.

A separate social sensitivity training, conducted by a sociology professor at the same university, will look at how companies should consider social issues such as history, labour, gender and human rights in marketing and other corporate activities, the company said.

The company said it would be the first nationwide early closure of Starbucks Korea stores since the chain opened in South Korea in 1999.

Starbucks Korea also plans to overhaul marketing approval procedures, including introducing a social-sensitivity checklist covering history, commemorative dates, politics, disasters, military issues, gender, violence and hate expressions, Shinsegae said.

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Starbucks Korea had more than 2,000 stores in South Korea as of end-2024 according to its annual impact report. It is South Korea’s No 1 coffee chain in terms of customer payments, according to data firm WISeaPP. REUTERS