Tom Morris
Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊"Marketers chose the slogan after consulting an AI tool, looking for suggestions... It turned out some managers who approved the campaign never opened the email attachments showing the marketing material." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/06/starbucks-south-korea-tank-day-promotion-blunder
Manni
Schroedingers_Cat@confuseacat @brucelawson I mean, at a festival I go to there is a place called The Tank" which serves coffee - Tank Coffee. Has been for years, as it is just like a large tank to be in.
So it is not always a problem in the right context.
To launch now with this term, in a world that is so violent, is tasteless. Even I know this.
And then to not consider local impact and context - this feels very Starbucks. DGAF, jsut give us the money.
Nick Appleyard@brucelawson
Is this the first time a CEO has been fired for using #LLM #AI?
Maybe not the last.
@davidgerard
pgcd
Bob Thomson@brucelawson serendipitously, this popped up for me just after I had seen a LinkedIn post from a CTO seeking to explain why they thought some smart people resisted AI, a concept clearly surprising to them. 🙄🤡😆
Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️🌈 🇺🇦@brucelawson There’s cognitive surrender, and then there’s whatever this is.
Andy Piper@brucelawson wow, reading the article the consequences here are *bad* 🫣
UkeleleEric@andypiper @brucelawson worse than bad, this is the sort of thing that can affect sales in a country for a couple of generations. The most immediate equivalent that I can think of is the Hillsborough disaster in the UK, where, to this day, the Sun newspaper (that lied and spread the police/government line) has very low sales in the Liverpool area, over 30 years on.
Pete Birkinshaw@brucelawson I just don't believe this explanation/excuse and it's strange that the Guardian presents it as truth
Brett R@binaryape @brucelawson I know nothing about this, so I am not trying to criticize your conclusion, but can you share some details that you find suspect? We know "AI" can pick up and repeat offensive views, and no one reviewi h it closely would match many other mistakes we've seen, so I'm curious what the red flags for you are that I missed/dismissed.
🏳️🌈 Happy Pride-onphan! 🏳️⚧️@brucelawson BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The vid of the people smashing and hammering their overpriced Starbucks cups was 
Jered Floyd@brucelawson @cstross Ah, we’re reaching the “AI as scapegoat” phase of this cycle, I see. (Narrator: It wasn’t AI, it was fascism all along.)
sahqon@jered @brucelawson @cstross Everything is pointing to a coincidence with this, the AI use, the not opening things and all of it probably happened exactly as they claim, but the exact date and the exact details say that -somebody- was behind it. Probably not the management currently being held responsible, but don't tell me accidents this precise have any realistic chance of happening. Now somebody high enough up that they knew how things like this were approved but won't be the one paying for the fuckup, that's more believable.
Edit: or I suppose since it's Starbucks it could have been a fucked up loyalty pledge to the Nazis that they didn't realize would end quite this badly.
WeFuct@brucelawson it seems to me that these mega corps would not have so many problems if people would find an alternative to shop with than these terrible companies.
Jonathan Dresner@brucelawson I don't find that entirely credible, given that we know the CEO of starbucks Korea is a full-bore right-wing bastard who would entirely go for the unsubtle 'humor' of the stunt.
@jondresner maybe; I know nothing about the Starbucks CEO
@brucelawson Cartoonist Ryan Estrada did a commentary on this when the incident first happened:
https://bsky.app/profile/jondresner.bsky.social/post/3mmjntyfle22p
https://bsky.app/profile/jondresner.bsky.social/post/3mmjntyfle22p