Even past broadcast captions are being brought back up as aftershocks continue over Starbucks Korea's "Tank Day" controversy. This time, a phrase from the 2013 broadcast of "Real Men" is being reexamined online.
On the 27th, a post capturing a scene from the 2013 broadcast of "Real Men" was spreading across online communities. The program at the time showed the cast carrying out a Han River crossing operation drill at the Taeguk Engineer Brigade Cheongryong Battalion.
The issue was the caption. In the scene where the cast installs a pontoon bridge over the river, the phrase "Is this the limit now? Faces that look like they'd collapse with an 'ugh' at a tap" was inserted.
Online, there was criticism that this phrase evokes the police announcement during the 1987 Park Jong-cheol torture and death case: "We tapped him and he went 'ugh' and died." The program is still available to watch on OTT platforms.
These posts are resurfacing amid the recent controversy over Starbucks Korea's "Tank Day" event. On May 18, the anniversary of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising, Starbucks Korea held the "Tank Day" event and used the phrase "a tap on the desk," sparking accusations of distorting and trivializing history.
As the controversy grew, Chung Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group, issued a public apology on the 26th, saying, "I deeply apologize for treating the pain of history and the values of democracy lightly."