Starbucks Campaign Triggers Apology Over Gwangju Memory

The coffee chain in South Korea faced a sharp backlash after it ran a promotion that many saw as disrespectful to the Gwangju Uprising, an event where thousands of students were violently suppressed in 1980. In the wake of public outrage, the head of the retailer that owns Starbucks in Korea issued a formal apology and accepted full responsibility for the mistake. The company’s shares first rose, but then dropped by more than two percent after the apology was released.A senior executive at Starbucks Korea had already been dismissed last week, and the global parent company has also said it will investigate the issue. Government officials announced that they would no longer supply products from firms that appear to trivialize the country’s democratic struggles. The Korean unit of Starbucks is majority owned by a local retailer, with the rest held by a Singaporean investment fund.