Amid the controversy over Starbucks Korea's "May 18 Tank Day," Musinsa's crisis response, which faced a backlash seven years ago over historical awareness, is being reexamined.
According to the retail industry on the 27th, Musinsa sparked major controversy on July 3, 2019, by using the phrase "When I tapped the desk, it suddenly dried" in an ad for quick-drying socks. Critics said it evoked the police's obfuscating announcement at the time of the 1987 torture and death of the late activist Park Jong-cheol.
As the controversy grew, Musinsa immediately deleted the post and issued two apologies. In the statements, it acknowledged the phrase was "an inappropriate expression lacking historical awareness," and specified that the review process failed to filter it and that the company did not properly recognize the historical significance of the incident.
Six days after the controversy, on July 9, 2019, Chief Executive Cho Man-ho, three business division heads and the head of the content editing team visited the Park Jong-cheol Memorial Foundation to apologize and deliver a donation. They also visited the former Namyeong-dong anticommunist interrogation headquarters where Park was tortured to reflect on Park's sacrifice and the meaning of the June Democracy Movement. On the 12th of the same month, the company issued a third official apology and held history education for all employees by inviting Choi Tae-sung, a Korean history instructor with EBS, to lecture on modern and contemporary history and the democracy movement.
At the time, the Park Jong-cheol Memorial Foundation accepted the apology, noting it seemed "a healthy way to resolve the issue" and that the visit alone was sufficient. Musinsa later established a multi-layer review system in which multiple organizations beyond the responsible department review sensitive marketing content, and Cho joined the Park Jong-cheol Memorial Foundation as a member and has remained personally active for seven years to date. The fact that it did not stop at a short-term, damage-control apology but followed up with measures to prevent recurrence and improve historical awareness has drawn renewed attention.
This seven-year-old incident resurfaced after Lee Jae-myung, the president, mentioned Starbucks Korea's recent "Tank Day" marketing issue critically on his social media (SNS). From Musinsa's perspective, a past matter for which it had already apologized and taken follow-up measures has again been put before public judgment.
However, Musinsa bowed its head again instead of offering separate explanations or rebuttals. In an official apology on the 20th, Musinsa said, "We once again bow our heads in deep apology for the wrongdoing we committed in 2019." On the 22nd, Co-CEOs Cho Man-ho and Cho Nam-seong directly visited the Park Jong-cheol Center in Gwanak District, Seoul, to convey their apology and took time to reflect on materials related to Park Jong-cheol and the meaning of the democracy movement.
Among corporate communications professionals, Musinsa's response is being evaluated as "an apology close to the textbook." Many corporate apologies blur responsibility or inflame criticism with phrases like "caused a misunderstanding," but Musinsa clearly acknowledged past wrongdoing without evasion while explaining what steps it took at the time and what efforts it has continued since. A distribution industry official said, "Musinsa's apology contained all the necessary elements without unnecessary emotional expressions or excuses."
Meanwhile, some in the industry say criticism from political circles is excessive ahead of the nationwide local elections on June 3. While corporations should of course be criticized for inappropriately exploiting historical wounds, it is overreach to criticize even cases that were already addressed with apologies and follow-up measures seven years ago.
A business community official said, "Inappropriate marketing by corporations that touches historical pain deserves criticism, but if we do not distinguish between matters already resolved and those unfolding now, corporations' public relations and marketing activities could be excessively chilled."