South Korean police raided the headquarters of Starbucks Korea on Wednesday, as part of an investigation into the coffee chain’s disastrous ad campaign. The campaign, which was launched in May, sparked public anger and forced the company to apologize and fire an executive.
Background
The controversy began when Starbucks Korea launched a “Tank Day” marketing campaign to promote its “Tank” line of tumblers. However, the campaign was unveiled on the same day as Democratization Movement Day, which commemorates the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, a sensitive topic in South Korea.
The company has since seen a significant drop in sales and has been in damage control mode, including shutting all its stores in South Korea for an afternoon in June for mandatory training on historical awareness and social sensitivity.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
