Starbucks Korea sacks CEO over controversial 'Tank Day' promotion

Starbucks-korea" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="129424" data-entity-type="organization">Starbucks Korea's chief executive has been sacked over a campaign perceived as referring to a bloody historical incident.Launched on Monday, the anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising crackdown, the "Tank Day" coffee tumbler promotion sparked calls to boycott Starbucks-korea" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="129424" data-entity-type="organization">Starbucks Korea and prompted a harsh rebuke from President Lee Jae Myung.Many felt the "tank" motif referenced vehicles deployed by the military government in May 1980 to crush pro-democracy protesters.Starbucks-korea" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="129424" data-entity-type="organization">Starbucks Korea rolled back the promotion hours after it launched. Shinsegae, the conglomerate that owns the majority stake in the coffee chain, apologised for "inappropriate marketing" and fired the chain's chief executive Sohn Jeong-hyun.The promotion, which used the English words "Tank Day", was for their Tank Series drink tumblers touted to have "spacious volume" for a large amount of coffee.According to local reports, Starbucks-korea" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="129424" data-entity-type="organization">Starbucks Korea initially clarified that the Tank Series was one of several series of tumblers it was rolling out in a campaign running from 15 to 26 May. "We sincerely apologise for causing inconvenience and concern to our customers due to this," the company said. "We have immediately suspended the event and will review and improve our internal processes to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future."Starbucks' headquarters in the US also issued an apology, acknowledging that "while unintentional, [the incident] should never have happened".