South Korea Starbucks' nickname service 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.

StarbucksKorea 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.

But as the election approaches, some coffee lovers have turned the service into an opportunity to make political statements. These customers’ "nicknames” would also be displayed inside the coffee shop on an electronic board.

One customer used the nickname "Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol,” referring to the president who was removed from office in April after the country’s Constitutional Court unanimously upheld a parliamentary vote to impeach him. When their Starbucks order was ready, the nickname appeared under the word "complete,” and the moment went viral. Other people used explicit names demeaning the former first lady. Some took aim at the main opposition leader, including one who ordered a drink for "Lee Jae-myung is a spy.”

Now, Starbucks is automatically banning the use of the politicians’ names in orders made through its app, a move that is increasingly gaining attention among customers.
StarbucksKorea said in a statement that it is seeking to maintain political neutrality in its Call My Name service. Coffee-addicted South Korea is Starbucks’s third-largest market after the United States and China.

It is the first time the coffee chain has enacted such a rule in South Korean stores, according to domestic media. The change underscores South Korea’s increasingly polarized environment ahead of the election.

South Koreans will go to the polls on June 3 to choose a new president after six months of political turmoil that began with Yoon’s abrupt declaration of martial law in December, which led to the unprecedented arrest and indictment of a sitting president. Yoon was then impeached, along with the acting president. The country is now being ruled by its fourth president in six months.

Those events have intensified South Korea’s political divide between liberals, who want to see a change in government after Yoon’s effort to impose martial law, and conservatives who have defended him and made unsupported claims of election fraud to stand by his decisions.

Yoon is now on criminal trial, facing charges of leading an insurrection when he declared martial law.

The tumult has led to the emergence of a far-right bloc that has adopted the American slogan "Stop the Steal,” borrowed from supporters of President Donald Trump who deny the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost.

Now, the Democratic Party’s Lee is vowing to restore democratic norms and stability in the country. Lee narrowly lost the presidency in 2022, by a margin of less than 1 percent. He is leading in the polls, but Kim Moon-soo, the candidate for Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, is closing the gap.

The other candidates are Lee Jun-seok, Kwon Young-kook, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin-ho.
Now, those who share the same names as the candidates will need to wait until after June 3 to use their real names for any venti Americano orders.

Unfortunately for these namesakes, some of the candidates’ names are fairly common.

Just ask Kim Moon-soo, a Democratic lawmaker from the southern province of South Jeolla who shares the same name as the conservative presidential nominee. Once the party nominees were chosen this month, he took down about 20 of his banner advertisements in his home district so as not to inadvertently campaign for the rival party.