Starbucks Korea Faces Backlash Over ‘Tank Day’ Marketing Controversy

Translation result.

Amid controversy over Starbucks Korea’s \”Tank Day\” marketing—accused of belittling the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement—current employees gave the company its lowest ratings for management in internal reviews.

Industry sources said Blind, the anonymous workplace community, analyzed evaluations from 568 Starbucks Korea employees submitted between January of last year and May of this year and found the company’s overall score was 2.74 out of 5.

Among the five survey subcategories, the management rating was the weakest at 1.81.

Other scores remained in the mid-to-high 2s: pay and benefits 2.76; corporate culture 2.58; career development 2.52; and work–life balance 2.49.

Employee interest spiked after the controversy. Searches for \”Starbucks Korea\” on Blind jumped from 2,393 in April to 91,080 in May—a 38-fold increase. The number of unique users searching for the company rose from 944 to 46,870 over the same period, nearly a 50-fold increase.

In May, the most common related search term was \”boycott\” (1,038 mentions), followed by \”government\” (646), \”Jung Yong-jin\” (505), \”partner\” (453), and \”store\” (452).

Starbucks Korea ran a tumbler promotion on May 18—the anniversary of the May 18 Democratization Movement—using the phrases \”Tank Day\” and \”Bang it on the desk!\” in its marketing copy, prompting accusations that the campaign trivialized the movement.