A person walks past a Starbucks location in Seoul on May 25, 2026. (Yonhap)
As Starbucks Korea faces mounting criticism over a marketing campaign that appeared to make light of the 1980 uprising and massacre in Gwangju, not only executives at the coffee chain but also Korean President Lee Jae Myung are being targeted by a flurry of criminal complaints.The Korean police said on Monday that the public crimes investigation unit at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency had carried out a second round of interviews that afternoon at the Gwangju Nambu Police Station with five complainants, including Park Ha-seong, who was wounded in the events of the May 18 Democratization Movement in the Korean city. Park and the other complainants asked the police department to look into alleged criminal conduct by four people: Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin, former Starbucks Korea CEO Son Jung-hyun and two Starbucks marketing directors. The complainants said that Starbucks’ “Tank Day” marketing campaign was defamatory and in violation of Korea’s Special Act on the May 18 Democratization Movement.The complainants’ first interviews with the police took place on Thursday.When a number of criminal complaints were filed against Chung and other figures after the controversial marketing campaign on May 18, the police explained that related complaints had been bundled together for review by the public crimes investigation unit at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.The police said they had also questioned Kim Soon-hwan, the secretary general of the Public Welfare Committee, who filed a complaint against Chung and Son for defamation and insult of character on Wednesday. As political figures waded into the discourse over the Tank Day fiasco ahead of the June 3 local elections, complaints were filed against senior government officials, including the president. On Monday, the committee filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency against Lee, Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung, Minister of Justice Jung Sung-ho, Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back and Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae for abuse of power and violations of the Public Official Election Act. The committee alleged that the Lee administration was largely responsible for the boycott of Starbucks, claiming that this represented a violation of political neutrality and fairness in the run-up to the elections.On May 18, Starbucks Korea sparked public outrage for appearing to mock the 1980 democratization movement and the martyred activist Park Jong-cheol by using the phrase "Thwack it on the desk!" in a marketing campaign for its “Tank” tumbler series dubbed "Tank Day." As controversy over the debacle continued to simmer despite an official apology from Starbucks Korea, Chung on Tuesday issued a public apology and released the results of Shinsegae’s internal investigation.By Cho Hae-yeong, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
