Starbucks avoids controversy by banning the names of presidential candidates

Currently, walk in Starbucks in South Korea, and there are some names that you will certainly not hear.

Six to be precise – and they happen to be the names of the candidates running in the coming presidential race.

That is because Starbucks have temporarily blocked customers that order drinks when using these names, which would be called by Baristas.

The company said it had to “maintain political neutrality during the election season”, and added that this would be lifted after the elections on 3 June.

South Korean companies and celebrities usually strive to be considered neutral. But it has become more important in recent months because political unrest caused by former President Yoon Suk Yeol left the country more than ever.

Now, while South Korea is preparing to choose his new president after the accusation of Yoon, even the most everyday things can be politized – a lesson that Starbucks has learned in the hard way.

In recent months it has seen an increasing number of customers who order drinks via their app and the key of sentences such as “Arrestation Yoon Suk Yeol” or “(opposition leader) Lee Jae-Myung is a spy” as their nicknames.

Starbucks Baristas had little other choice, but to scream these names as soon as the drinks were ready for collection.

“Our goal is to ensure that every customer has a great experience in our coffee houses,” said Starbucks in a statement about his new step to ban the six names of the presidential candidates.

“To help that, we sometimes block certain sentences that can be understood by our employees or customers – such as the names of political candidates with messages from support or opposition during the election season to retain neutrality.”

But this is the first time that it has forbidden the names of all candidates to be carried out in an election. In addition to Lee, the other names are Kim Moon-Soo, Lee Jun-seok, Kwon Young-Kook, Hwang Kyo-Ahn and Song Jin-Ho.

Some think the coffee giant is going a bit too far.

“I think people are too sensitive. What if your real name is the same as that of a candidate?” said 33-year-old Jang Hye-Mi.

Ji Seok-Bin, a 27-year-old who was established in Starbucks, said he thought the rule was “too trivial”, although he said he understood the logic behind it, given the raised political tensions of the country.

“After (Yoon’s accusation) I don’t really talk about politics anymore. It feels like the ideological gap has grown so much that conversations often turn into arguments.”

Starbucks is not alone. The largest search engine in the country, retirement, has eliminated autocomplete and related search suggestions for candidates, as usually during the election season.

A search on Google to Lee, which is widely tipped to win the elections, yields sentences such as “Lee Jae -Myung Trial” – a reference to the fact that he is currently involved in various criminal processes.

A search for the conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-Sooo of the country brings a related suggestion for “conversion”, because he is generally seen “converted” of an avid labor activist for a conservative politician.

It was retrieving that it decided to “provide” more accurate and honest information during the election campaign “.

Celebrities and public figures are also extra careful because they are held at high standards of political impartiality. Even the clothing they wear during the election time would be strongly investigated.

Wearing colors such as blue and red – which respectively represent the Liberal Democratic Party (DP) of the Land (DP) and the Conservative People (PPP) – has been sufficient in the past to activate online recoil.

Sometimes even a baseball cap or only stump is sufficient to generate 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 seen in red slippers and a pink mask.

Last year, Shinji, lead singer of the popular trio Koyote, posted a black -white workout photo on Instagram a day before the general elections, with the caption that she “made the photo black and white … (after) the color of my sweat pants.”

“Funny and sad at the same time,” she added.

Some celebrities go even further and deliberately wear a mix of red and blue.

A make-up artist with more than a decade experience with K-pop stars and actors told the BBC that styling teams remain symbolic colors during elections from the neighborhood of political symbolic colors.

“We usually stay on neutral tones such as black, white or gray,” said the makeup artist, who refused to be called.

Celebrities should even be careful when standing out a pose, she added.

Flash the peacetia for a photo? That can be read as the number two – and therefore an approval of a political candidate. In Zuid -Korea, election candidates are each assigned a song.

Dr. Cho Jin-Man, Van Duksung Women’s University, says that it is “important to be able to talk about different things without crossing the border and being able to recognize and understand differences”.

But with so much distribution in the country, he adds that many choose to “remain silent to stay politically neutral”.