South Korean police have conducted a raid on Starbucks’ local headquarters as part of an investigation into a controversial marketing campaign that allegedly downplayed the country’s 1980s pro-democracy movement.
Police searched Starbucks Korea’s headquarters in southern Seoul on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday. South Korean media reported that investigators also searched the homes of some company executives.
The investigation follows public anger over a campaign promoting a series of stainless-steel tumblers called “SS Tank.” The company had designated 18 May as “Tank Day,” using a date that marks the anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju.
The uprising was violently suppressed by South Korea’s military-backed government at the time.
The campaign also used the slogan “Thwack it on the table!” which many people viewed as a reference to the 1987 death of student activist Park Jong-chol while in police custody.
Authorities at the time falsely claimed that Park had died after an investigator “hit the desk with a thwack,” an explanation that was later exposed as a cover-up of his torture and death.
The campaign sparked widespread criticism, prompting Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5 per cent stake in Starbucks Korea, to cancel it within hours.
The group also dismissed the chief executive of Starbucks Korea. Shinsegae Chairman Chung Yong-jin later apologized in a televised statement.
Starbucks Korea subsequently closed all of its stores across the country early on 22 June for mandatory training on Korean history and social sensitivity.
The police investigation began after relatives of victims of the Gwangju crackdown filed complaints. Official records say about 200 people were killed during the suppression of the uprising.
South Korea became a democracy in 1987 after then-authoritarian President Chun Doo-hwan, who had led the crackdown in Gwangju, agreed to constitutional changes introducing direct presidential elections following massive pro-democracy protests.
