10 hours Ago
Coffees, Candidates and Censorship
Starbucks Korea has instructed staff to stop writing the names of six South Korean presidential contenders on customer’s cups as nicknames when they order drinks. These names — Lee Jae-myung, Kim Moon-soo, Lee Jun-Seok, Kwon Young-kook, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin-ho — will not be allowed to be entered on the app or for in-person orders until the election has passed.
The move came after politically tinged orders surged on that app, among them “arrest Yoon Suk Yeol” or “Lee Jae-myung is spy,” that baristas had to by then call out loudly. With emotions on edge following the impeachment of the former president Yoon Suk Yeol, the company said that it wanted to avoid misunderstandings and create a politically neutral environment for all customers.
“This is all about ensuring that every customer has a comfortable experience, and not using a political name is one way to ensure we can have a differentiator between the customer experience and the expectation around that experience if you’re in a Starbucks,” Starbucks said, explaining that political name bans are in place during elections. It is the first time the coffee chain has prevented an entire slate of candidates from moving forward.
The decision drew a mixed reaction. “Does that mean your real name is the same as a candidate’s?” said Jang Hye-mi, a 33-year-old customer. And there was 27-year-old Ji Seok-bin, who got the intention but called the policy “too trivial”; a broader discomfort with publicly talking politics. “I couldn’t speak my mind since then, after [Yoon’s impeachment]. It usually escalates to fights,” he said.
Online Searches and Quiet Signals
Starbucks is not the only platform that is stepping lightly. South Korea’s largest search engine, Naver, has also temporarily disabled autocomplete and related search results that show up when entering candidate names. This is done in every election cycle to ensure fairness in the search results and reduce bias.
A search for Lee Jae-Myung — involved in multiple criminal trials at the moment — could produce terms such as “Lee Jae-myung trial” on some of them. On the other hand, Kim Moon-soo, who began his career as a labor activist and moved to the conservative (삶을) 돌바르게 변신에 이은 변신) may see “conversion” as a related search term. Naver stressed that it aims to provide accurate and well-rounded information for the campaign's duration.
Public figures, in turn, are walking on eggshells. Korean celebrities are heavily pressured to remain middle-grounded. Even during campaigns, their fashion choices can spark backlash. (They almost always wear colors symbolizing the two main parties: red for the conservative People’s Power Party, or PPP, and blue for the liberal Democratic Party, or DP.)
Previous controversies include Kim Hee-chul, a member of the boy band Super Junior, who has been accused of being a pro-PPP supporter for wearing red slippers and a pink mask during the 2022 presidential election.
Likewise, singer Shinji of the group Koyote shared a black-and-white photo of herself working out before a general election, attributing her decision to remove color from the image to her worry about the political meaning of her sweatpants.
Makeup artists and stylists for K-pop stars say that, during election periods, they stay away from red and blue altogether, and instead dress them in neutral colors — such as gray, black, or white. There isn’t even any flashing of peace signs in the pictures, because that’s liable to be taken as an endorsement of candidate number two.
A Divided Nation, a Skeptical Public
The closer they get to the election, the more South Koreans seem prepared to clam up, rather than argue their politics out. The rift left by Yoon Suk Yeol’s infighting has widened further, and public conversation has become heightened to the point of touchiness.
One political analyst said that “whatever your view may be, there are valid reasons” and that respectful conversation is required, but also that in the current climate, “silence is often the safer neutral ground.”
In a nation where ordering coffee, wearing a colored shirt, or taking a picture can suddenly seem political, neutrality offers protection, not just preference.
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