‘Tank Day’ event causes outrage with ‘malicious mockery’ of deadly crackdown during dictatorship era The chief executive of Starbucks in South Korea has been dismissed after the company ran a promotional event using slogans that evoked a massacre of pro-democracy protesters during the country’s dictatorship era, sparking outrage and boycott calls. The coffee chain launched a “Tank Day” campaign on 18 May for its “Tank” tumbler series. The date coincides with one of the most politically sensitive days in South Korea’s calendar, when citizens commemorate the 1980 democratisation movement in Gwangju, 167 miles (270km) south-west of Seoul.

When Shinsegae Group chairman Chung Yong-jin bowed before cameras in Seoul on May 26, 2026, it marked his second public apology in two weeks. The controversy stemmed from a Starbucks Korea promotion launched on May 18, the anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising, promoting a large tumbler branded as a “tank” while marketing the date itself […] The post Starbucks marketing blunder complicates South Korea’s elections appeared first on Asia Times .

Starbucks South Korea faced controversy after a "Tank Day" promotion that offended the 1980 Gwangju Uprising tragedy.

The coffee chain's "Tank Day" campaign began Monday, which also marks Democratization Movement Day commemorating the student-led Gwangju Uprising of May 1980.