S. Korean posts falsely link old video to Starbucks marketing fiasco
- Published on May 22, 2026 at 10:25
- 3 min read
- By Hawon Jung, Livia LIU, AFP South Korea, AFP Hong Kong
Starbucks Korea has been widely criticised for a marketing campaign that evoked the deadly suppression of the 1980 pro-democracy Gwangju uprising, but a video circulating on social media does not show a woman staging a protest over the controversy at one of their stores. The video has circulated online since at least 2024, in posts about an incident at a Starbucks in China.
"Has a riot broken out in the Gwangju Starbucks by any chance?" says the Korean-language caption of an X video on May 19, 2026.
The video appears to show a young woman in one of the company's coffee shops, violently sweeping goods off the cashier's counter and hurling empty paper cups at the cashier and across the floor.
It surfaced a day after Starbucks Korea chief executive Son Jung-hyun was fired amid public outrage over the company's "Tank Day" campaign, launched on May 18 -- the anniversary of the deadly 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising (archived link).
The wording was used to promote new coffee cups branded as "Tank tumblers", but evoked the military vehicles used to crush protesters.
The 1980 protests saw students and civilians rise up against military rule before troops violently suppressed the movement over 10 days. Official figures record 165 civilians killed, with 65 listed as missing and 376 others later dying of injuries, though many believe the true toll was higher.
Public anger over the campaign fuelled calls for a boycott, and President Lee Jae Myung, who attended commemorations for the anniversary, condemned the promotion, saying it had "mocked" the victims (archived link).
The video was also shared in similar Threads, YouTube and X posts.
Some users used the clip to amplify popular far-right narratives dismissing the 1980 uprising and mocking victims and survivors of the military crackdown.
"This is the reality of the rioters. No matter how you try to frame their past riots as pro-democracy movements, you can't conceal their true nature," read a comment on one of the posts, appearing to echo widely-debunked claims the Gwangju uprising was a pro-communist riot backed by North Korea.
"Is she going to be the Starbucks national honouree?" read another comment, in mocking reference to victims and survivors of the 1980 crackdown who were later recognised as national honourees.
The video, however, was not filmed at a Starbucks in Gwangju or anywhere else in South Korea.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found it has circulated since at least 2024 in social media posts claiming it was filmed at a Starbucks in China (archived here, here, here and here).
A report shared on popular Chinese short video website Baidu Haokan on May 13, 2024 says the clip was filmed in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen on May 11, 2024 (archived link).
An eyewitness cited in the report said the woman threw a tantrum after being told she could not take a cup with her, and was eventually escorted away by the police. The report concludes with footage showing the woman being taken away by the police.
The report said the incident happened at a Starbucks store at a mega shopping complex in Shenzhen (archived link). Photos uploaded by customers to food review platform OpenRice match elements of the store visible in the falsely shared clip (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims related to the Gwangju uprising.
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