Mastodawn

The Guardian: Starbucks Korea to temporarily shut all stores for history lesson after bungled coffee promotion

"...The Gwangju massacre is a painful memory for many. Over 10 violent days, paratroopers crushed pro-democracy protests against military strongman Chun Doo-hwan. Victims’ groups say hundreds were killed.

Starbucks branded the date of its promotion “Tank Day”. It also featured the slogan “thwack on the desk”, evoking a notorious police explanation for the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chul. Authorities falsely claimed he had died after an officer “hit the desk with a thwack” during questioning.

Marketers chose the “thwack” slogan after consulting an AI tool for suggestions, Shinsegae Group said...."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/starbucks-korea-shut-all-stores-tank-day-promotion

#starbucks #AI #fiasco #korea

Starbucks Korea to temporarily shut all stores for history lesson after bungled coffee promotion

The closures, so employees can watch a recorded lecture, will cost the company an estimated 2.1bn won ($1.4m) in sales

The Guardian

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

CNBC: "...Sohn’s dismissal came hours after Starbucks launched its “Tank Day” campaign on Monday promoting what it called its “Tank” line of tumblers with the tagline “put it on the table with a sound of ‘Tak!’”

Monday also marked Democratisation Movement Day, which commemorates the student-led Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, and the campaign drew strong criticism in South Korea....

Critics also questioned the use of the phrase “tak” for echoing explanations by South Korean police in 1987 for the death of a student protester, who was found to have been tortured. At the time, police said the student died after investigators struck a desk making a “tak” sound, according to local media reports."

#starbucks #korea #massacre

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

**this is far worse than the Chevy No-va in South America. (widely cited in marketing books, but I don't see supporting stuff online for that nowadays. 🤔 Who knows now in the age of AI?) #marketing

CassandraVert Jun 16

@ai6yr That's so specific and uncommon that it sounds deliberately offensive.

Joris Meys Jun 16

@CassandraVert
They asked AI. It produced the associations in the data. Work as intended, not as desired.

Clark Breyman (he/him)Jun 16

@ai6yr not to mention the rename of the Buick LaCrosse in Québec.

@ai6yr you're trivialising it by drawing comparisons with the chevy nova. At least look it up on snopes. If you want a marketing fail, look up ratner.

Jonathan Jun 16

Okay "put it on the table with the sound of tak" has got to be LLM generated. There's no question.

me_valentijn Jun 16

@ai6yr
Conversely, it brings a ton of attention to a government atrocity which China has forbidden all mention of for decades. Though if that was the intent, I'd expect the actual messaging and imagery to be overtly anti-fascist. It would generate as much outrage and attention, coming from the coffee megacorp.

Jonathan Jun 16

"Chung issued a written apology, and also apologised in a televised press conference where he bowed three times."

Well three is better than but I got to say I was expecting at least four and a half.

Jonathan Jun 16

I will say this though: I previously thought that there were no real use cases for LLMs. However, the LLM in this case got the CEO fired pretty quickly, so perhaps I've been selling them short.

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

@jmcrookston 😂

@ai6yr holy cow there is no way this made it all the way through the pipeline without a single person understanding this was a horrible offense.

neville park Jun 16

@elebertus @ai6yr From the article: "It turned out some managers who approved the campaign never opened the email attachments showing the marketing material."

@nev @elebertus @ai6yr speaking as a middle manager

sometimes you just let things go because otherwise nobody learns

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

@sarae @nev @elebertus I am unsure of the business culture in Korea, but if it's anything like Japan, no middle manager or even executive under the CEO dare question any decision handed down to them. It's even quite difficult in the United States. There's a culture of obesiance across most large corporate structures. (I know in Japan, and there's even worse lack of ability to push back due to the history of the country -- i.e. the Emperor's word was law no matter how unfair, etc. Similar to China, as well... China has a long history of removing the heads of middle managers who dare question the Emperor, lol.)

@ai6yr @nev @elebertus so I've been listening to this series of self help audiobooks by a Japanese Buddhist monk

it's very useful stuff

but at one point the monk is like, and if things go poorly for you at work, do not let it trouble you, today is not like the old days when you would have been expected to disembowel yourself

which was one of those oh shit! moments but also a really useful thing to keep in mind when I'm stressing about the job

@ai6yr @nev @elebertus this is the book, btw

good advice!

https://www.powells.com/book/art-of-simple-living-100-daily-practices-from-a-japanese-zen-monk-for-a-lifetime-of-calm-joy-9780143134046?condition=Used%20-%20Good

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

@sarae @nev @elebertus Noted, will not disembowel myself if things go bad at work! 🤪

@ai6yr @nev @elebertus you can always get another job! but not if you're disemboweled

it's a healthy perspective to cultivate

Fripi (DECT 3034)Jun 16

@ai6yr
It honestly is scary how many people are würde like that here. I once was on a business trip and my connection was wonky. I did move fasty but didn't panic or run. My colleague who was with me got super scared and I was just like look. They fuck up they can clean it up this is not a me problem. He nearly choked. He just couldn't comprehend that I would not do everything to save the company a few bucks...
@sarae @nev @elebertus

Denise Ruttan Jun 16

@sarae Sadly I had an old job that I got fired from that made me feel like I was getting disembowled after making too many mistakes five months into the gig 🙈

Weekend Editor Jun 16

@sarae @ai6yr @nev @elebertus

"...today is not like the old days when you would have been expected to disembowel yourself..."

Of course not; we are not barbarians!

Today, instead of do-it-yourself, we instead have HR departments to disembowel you. They are very skilled with knives.

@ai6yr @sarae @nev @elebertus

Well, until the emperor loses Tianming anyway: at that point, well, anything goes, more or less

🍓𝔹𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕪𝕊𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘🍓Jun 16

@nev @elebertus @ai6yr Middle managers probably already working night shift at some wayward E-Mart as punishment.

@nev @ai6yr I read one of the clickthroughs that said as much.

I suppose one takeaway is no matter what tools you use you're still accountable for what you create with them.

Megan Lynch (she/her)Jun 16

@ai6yr I hadn't even got to the end before I knew it was going to be AI "research".

AN/CRM-114 Jun 16

@ai6yr Corporate screws up but it’s the retail employees who have to go to sensitivity training, that is some Michael Scott bullshit

AI6YR Ben Jun 16

@flyingsaceur Good point. I bet those retail employees also were told to shut up about the tank cup

Jim Hubbell Jun 16

@flyingsaceur @ai6yr
Hmmm. On the clock but not dealing with the pressure of production? Sounds good to me.

@ai6yr classic. Ceos are incopetent, so the workers have to be put through training.