SEOUL ¨C The head of Starbucks Korea has been fired after a marketing campaign sparked public outrage for evoking painful memories ?of a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.
Shinsegae Group, the retail conglomerate that licenses ?and manages the ?U.S. coffee chain in South Korea, said it had sacked Sohn Jeong-hyun, the head ?of Starbucks Korea, for carrying out ¡°inappropriate marketing.¡± 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 Democratization Movement Day, which commemorates the student-led Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, and the campaign drew strong ?criticism in South Korea.
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