South Korea's Starbucks Corporation (SBUX.US) faced disastrous consequences after its "Tank Day" marketing campaign backfired: sales significantly dropped, the CEO was fired, and nationwide stores had to close early for "remedial" history lessons.

Due to the promotion activity that seriously touched on sensitive social nerves, South Korea Starbucks Corporation (SBUX.US) announced that it will close all stores nationwide at 3 p.m. on June 22nd local time, to provide historical understanding and social sensitivity training to all employees. This will be the first time since Starbucks Corporation entered Korea in 1999 that it will end operations nationwide early due to company instructions. This rare measure stems from last month's controversial "Tank Day" promotion. Starbucks Corporation Korea launched a "Tank" series travel cup discount promotion on the anniversary of the "5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement", which was widely criticized as referencing the painful history of the 1980 Korean military government using tanks to suppress protesters in Gwangju. The event quickly sparked consumer boycotts and political criticism, with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung also publicly expressing condemnation. The boycott storm has had a substantial impact on performance. Senior officials at the parent company Shanghai New World Group revealed that Starbucks Corporation Korea sales have seen a "very significant" decline. Shanghai New World Group Chairman Jung Yong-jin publicly apologized for this and dismissed the CEO of Starbucks Corporation Korea for the inadequate marketing review responsibility. In a statement, Shanghai New World Group said, "This move demonstrates our high regard for this marketing event and reflects our firm commitment to ensuring that such events do not recur." To bridge the gap between corporate communication and public sentiment, Starbucks Corporation Korea has arranged a tiered training program: headquarters employees and E-Mart department executives under Shanghai New World will undergo training at the internal training center on June 17th; on June 22nd, store employees nationwide will participate in training during early closure; Chairman Jung Yong-jin and CEOs of each subsidiary will receive training separately on June 24th. The training content covers two modules: history and social sensitivity. The history lecture will be delivered by a professor of history from Sungkyunkwan University, outlining significant events in modern Korean history since the 1950s; the social sensitivity training will be led by a sociology professor from the same university, discussing how businesses should consider historical, labor, gender, human rights, and other social issues in marketing and other activities. In terms of process improvement, Starbucks Corporation Korea acknowledges that there were flaws in the internal approval chain that allowed the "Tank Day" activity to be approved. The company will introduce a "social sensitivity checklist" developed by external experts, covering categories such as history, national memorial days, politics, disasters, military, gender, violence, and hate speech, and tighten the review process, requiring legal and quality control teams to jointly approve across departments. It is understood that the chain supermarket E-Mart under Shanghai New World Group holds 67.5% of the shares of Starbucks Corporation Korea, with the remaining shares held by a Singapore sovereign wealth fund. South Korea is Starbucks Corporation's largest market outside the U.S. and China. As of the end of 2024, Starbucks Corporation operated over 2,000 stores in Korea, and according to data research firm WISEAPP, Starbucks Corporation Korea is the top-ranked coffee chain brand in Korea based on consumer spending.