Latest news with #StarbucksKorea
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Starbucks' nickname service in South Korea causes political headaches
SEOUL — Starbucks stores in South Korea have banned customers from using certain names as their own when they order their coffees — specifically, the six names that will be on the presidential election ballot next week. Starbucks Korea runs a 'Call My Name' service, which allows customers to select a nickname on the app for baristas to shout out when their sea-salt caramel cold brew or sausage pretzel is ready. The option had become a popular outlet for customers to express themselves through puns, jokes and K-pop fandom.
Fast Company
23-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Why Starbucks is banning orders under certain names in South Korea
Starbucks in South Korea has barred customers from using the names of South Korea's six presidential candidates in their orders ahead of next month's presidential election. A Starbucks Korea spokesperson told NBC News the policy was introduced 'in order to prevent inappropriate and abusive use of the names.' The decision comes as South Koreans have increasingly used their Starbucks' orders to make a political statement—ordering via app under presidential candidates' names, and using phrases in support of or to oppose them, forcing baristas to call them out for pickup, per NBC. Some examples of those orders include: 'arrest Yoon Suk Yeol' and '[opposition leader] Lee Jae-myung is a spy,' per the BBC. According to Starbucks, the company needs to 'maintain political neutrality during election season,' and will lift the ban on June 3 after the election, the BBC reported. Like many South Korean businesses, Starbucks is seeking neutrality amid the charged political atmosphere around the election, stemming from former President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief martial law declaration and subsequent impeachment trial, which has deeply divided the East Asian democracy. Similarly, Naver, South Korea's biggest search engine, has disabled autocomplete on search for the candidates, a common practice for the tech giant during an election cycle, according to the BBC. The six presidential candidates' names that Starbucks has banned are: Lee Jae-myung, from the country's liberal Democratic Party (DP); Kim Moon-soo, from former president Yoon Suk Yeol' conservative People Power Party (PPP); and Lee Jun-seok, Kwon Young-kook, Hwang Kyo-ahn, and Song Jin-ho. As Fast Company previously reported, Starbucks recently posted 'disappointing' earnings results for the second quarter of fiscal 2025, ending on March 30. Unlike in the previous quarter, Starbucks did not beat analyst revenue expectations, of $8.83 billion and an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 49 cents, according to Yahoo Finance, instead posting a revenue of $8.76 billion and an adjusted EPS of 41 cents. One key metric, U.S. comparable store sales, declined 2% in Q2.
NBC News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Starbucks bars customers in South Korea from turning their orders into political statements
SEOUL, South Korea — Ordering coffee in South Korea? Not if your name is Lee Jae-myung. Starbucks customers in the East Asian democracy have been barred from using the names of South Korea's six presidential candidates in their orders until the election on June 3. A spokesperson for Starbucks Korea told NBC News by phone on Friday that the policy was introduced 'in order to prevent inappropriate and abusive use of the names.' In recent months South Koreans have increasingly used Starbucks as a political platform — ordering drinks through the app under politicians' names instead of their own, sometimes combined with calls to support or oppose them. Those entreaties are then repeated by baristas when they call out the orders for pickup in stores. Businesses such as Starbucks are anxious to appear neutral given the tense political atmosphere in South Korea, where voters are choosing a successor to former-President Yoon Suk Yeol after he was impeached over his botched martial law declaration late last year. The two main candidates are Lee Jae-myung of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, who narrowly lost to Yoon in South Korea's 2022 presidential election, and Kim Moon-soo from Yoon's conservative People Power Party. The other candidates whose names are not allowed in Starbucks orders are Lee Jun-seok, Kwon Young-kook, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin-ho. While Lee Jae-myung is leading in polls, Kim is narrowing the gap and could pull even if he persuades Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party to drop out of the race and throw Kim his support. Customers interviewed by NBC News said they understood why Starbucks would introduce the policy but many described it as an overreaction. 'Honestly, setting a nickname like that doesn't seem like an easy or effective way to make a political statement,' said Hyunwoo Park, 25. 'It's just a nickname — I think people should have the freedom to choose their own,' said Young-Eh Choi, 60. 'It's my right, so restricting it feels like too much.' Yoon's martial law declaration and subsequent impeachment trial have been deeply divisive in South Korea, increasing polarization between liberals who accused Yoon of abusing power and conservatives who embraced his baseless claims of election fraud and adopted slogans and symbols associated with President Donald Trump such as 'Stop the Steal.' Yoon supporters stormed a Seoul court in January after a judge extended his detention over the short-lived martial law order. 'The country feels very divided by age, gender and political affiliation,' Park said. 'Personally, I hope we can move past these exhausting conflicts and come together as Koreans.'
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
South Korea: Starbucks avoids brewing controversy by banning presidential candidates' names
Walk into any Starbucks in South Korea right now, and there are some names you definitely won't be hearing. Six to be exact - and they happen to be the names of the candidates running in the upcoming presidential race. That's because Starbucks has temporarily blocked customers who are ordering drinks from using these names, which would be called out by company said it needed to "maintain political neutrality during election season", adding that this would be lifted after the election on 3 June. South Korean businesses and celebrities usually strive to be seen as neutral. But it has become more crucial in recent months, as political turmoil triggered by former president Yoon Suk Yeol left the country more divided than as South Korea gears up to pick its new president following Yoon's impeachment, even the most mundane things can become politicised - a lesson Starbucks has learnt the hard recent months, it has seen an increasing number of customers ordering drinks through their app and keying in phrases such as "arrest Yoon Suk Yeol" or "[opposition leader] Lee Jae-myung is a spy" as their nicknames. Starbucks baristas had little choice but to yell out these names once the drinks were ready for collection."Our goal is to make sure every customer has a great experience in our coffeehouses," Starbucks said in a statement about its new move to ban the six presidential candidates' names."To help with that, we sometimes block certain phrases that could be misunderstood by our employees or customers — like names of political candidates with messages of support or opposition during election season to maintain neutrality."But this marks the first time it has banned the names of all the candidates running in an election. Besides Lee, the other names are Kim Moon-soo, Lee Jun-seok, Kwon Young-kook, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song think the coffee giant is taking things a bit too far."I think people are being too sensitive. What if your real name is the same as a candidate's?" said 33-year-old Jang Seok-bin, a 27-year-old who is a regular at Starbucks, said he thought the rule was "too trivial", though he said he understood the logic behind it given the country's heightened political tensions. "After [Yoon's impeachment] I don't really talk about politics anymore. It feels like the ideological divide has grown so much that conversations often turn into arguments." Selfies and searches Starbucks is not alone. The country's biggest search engine, Naver, has disabled autocomplete and related search suggestions for candidates, as it usually does during election season.A search on Google for Lee, who is widely tipped to win the election, yields phrases like "Lee Jae-myung trial" - a reference to the fact that he is currently embroiled in several criminal trials. A search for the country's conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo brings up a related suggestion for "conversion", as he is widely seen to have "converted" from being a fervent labour activist to a conservative politician. Naver said it decided to do this to "provide more accurate and fair information during the election campaign". Celebrities and public figures are also being extra careful, as they are held to high standards of political impartiality. Even the clothes they wear during election time would be highly scrutinised. Wearing colours like blue and red - which represent the country's liberal Democratic Party (DP) and conservative People's Power Party (PPP) respectively - has in the past been enough to trigger online backlash. Sometimes, even a baseball cap or necktie alone is enough to spark accusations of partisan support. During the last presidential election in 2022, Kim Hee-chul of K-pop group Super Junior was accused of being a PPP supporter when he was spotted wearing red slippers and a pink year, Shinji, lead vocalist of the popular trio Koyote, posted a black and white workout photo on Instagram a day before the general election, with the caption that she "made the photo black and white... [after] seeing the colour of my sweatpants.""Funny and sad at the same time," she added. Some celebrities go even further, deliberately wearing a mix of red and blue. One makeup artist with over a decade of experience working with K-pop stars and actors told the BBC that during elections, styling teams steer clear of politically symbolic colours. "We usually stick to neutral tones like black, white, or grey," said the make-up artist, who declined to be named. Celebrities even have to be careful when striking a pose, she added. Flashing the peace sign for a photo? That could be read as the number two - and thus an endorsement of a political candidate. In South Korea, election candidates are each assigned a Cho Jin-man, of Duksung Women's University, says it is "important to be able to talk about different things without crossing the line, and to be able to recognise and understand differences".But with so much division in the country, he adds that many are choosing to "remain silent to remain politically neutral".
Korea Herald
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Starbucks bans using presidential candidates' names as customer nicknames
Starbucks Korea has included the names of seven official presidential candidates as unusable for customer nicknames, in a bid to avoid politically-charged controversy. The local branch of the international coffeehouse chain said Tuesday that the politicians' names, along with recently-impeached ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, have been banned from its Call My Name service, until the conclusion of the upcoming June 3 presidential election. Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Korea, Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party, Kwon Young-guk of the Korean Democratic Labor Party, Koo Joo-wa of the Liberty Unification Party, and independent candidates Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin-ho cannot be registered in the Starbucks application for the service. Candidates' official campaign slogans also cannot be used. According to the company, this was a measure to minimize controversy and avoid political bias. Its official criteria for unusable nicknames include expressions that are against social norms, slanderous expressions, nicknames that can potentially cause discomfort among the public. The election to pick the president was initially slated to take place in 2027, but Yoon's much-disputed martial law imposition in December resulted him being expelled from presidency. He is currently under criminal trial for insurrection.
