By I first read about the Dunkin Donuts publicity stunt to offer Dokdo t-shirts to customers on Brian’s blog and I had a chance the other day to see the shirts for myself when I stopped for coffee at a Dunkin Donuts in Seoul:
The publicity campaign was right in front of the store and could not be missed. If the store is trying to reach a western audience with these Dokdo shirts they are going to fail miserably in my opinion because these shirts are just plain dumb.
I think Koreans agree with this assessment because I sat in the shop for about 30 minutes and did not see one person pick up one of these shirts. I have yet to see anyone in Korea even wearing one of the shirts. Has anyone else seen anyone wearing these shirts?
10:06 am on August 16th, 2008 1
I wonder if US corporate HQ is aware of this. Usually multinational corporations tend to shy away from political, ideological (and idiotic) disputes. How does this affect Dunkin Donuts – Nippon for instance?
/Haven’t noticed Panasonic or Coca Cola standing up for Georgia, for example…
Reply
10:15 am on August 16th, 2008 2
The difference between Dunkin’ Donuts and Panasonic and Coca-Cola is that Dunkin’ is a franchise while the latter two are not. A franchise business is a locally-owned and operated Korean business — under the franchise agreement the country master franchisee is usually given great latitude to implement advertising and marketing initiatives to succeed in the local market.
We think the Dokdo issue is dumb as a box of cat hair, but I assure you that Hong Kil-Dong on the street in Korea does not.
Dunkin’ is not a client of mine.
Reply
10:50 am on August 16th, 2008 3
Mr. Carr, in a rush to get my point across, I used bad examples. I would have meant to say I have not noticed Pizza Hut and McDonalds rushing to Geargias aid. Regardless, even franchises frown on this type of behavior.
Dunkin is no friend of mine.
Reply
1:36 pm on August 16th, 2008 4
Dokdonuts.
Reply
3:04 pm on August 16th, 2008 5
Leon LaPorte — I think you are conveniently overlooking how American corporate interests use American nationalist themes in marketing messages. Think back to the Wheaties box — those are American sports heroes on the box, not Russian.
I don’t imagine the Georgia issue is so important to Pizza Hut customers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, whose concerns might be thought to focus on American issues. In Tbilisi, if Pizza Hut (or Dunkin’ Donuts) were to adopt a nationalist pose to connect with Georgian customers, I’d think it only natural.
Reply
3:16 pm on August 16th, 2008 6
For the avoidance of doubt: I share your conviction that the Dokdo issue is for dipshits. But if the entire ethnic-Korean population of the world is infected with a dipshit perspective, and I want to sell donuts to this population, printing up t-shirts with the dipshit slogan “Do You Know?” seems to be a no-brainer.
Or would you have Dunkin’ Donuts try to argue the opposite point rationally, like Gerry Bevers?
Reply
3:41 pm on August 16th, 2008 7
http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2008/08/15/20080816.01100116000001.01L.jpg
Kyunghyang photo of sneakers with the Dokdo theme…
Reply
3:50 pm on August 16th, 2008 8
[...] reported on this story the other day over at Japan News Junkie, but here is a follow up by the good folks over at ROK Drop who actually went out to check out the report on their [...]
4:28 pm on August 16th, 2008 9
Dunkin Donuts is crap food. Let’s encourage these brainless Dokdo fanatics to eat as many servings of fried sugar as they can, so that they die off just a little bit sooner!
Reply
7:31 pm on August 16th, 2008 10
Maybe it’s a cultural thing.
You know, cream and sugar with your coffee for some, nationalist propaganda with your donuts for others. I imagine that nothing perks up your morning quite like feeling your blood boil.
Reply
7:39 pm on August 16th, 2008 11
FH, sometimes hate is sweeter than an apple fritter!
Reply
10:20 pm on August 16th, 2008 12
i want that tshirt for lols x.x
Reply
10:49 pm on August 16th, 2008 13
ROTFLOL. The cut out of that dude gives it the “lawlz”
Reply
11:12 am on August 17th, 2008 14
I have been to four different Dunkin Donuts over the past few days and every single one had the Dokdo promotion going. Three of them had the big display like you see in the above picture but the Dunkin Donuts in Uijongbu actually only had a small sign in a corner behind the counter that wasn’t very visible. It almost seemed like they were embarrassed to display it.
In the time I spent in the Dunkin Donuts stores, I did not see one person get a t-shirt. I have yet to see anyone even wearing one of these t-shirts out on the streets. Has anyone else? From my limited time in Dunkin Donuts I think this probably turned into a waste of money for them. I’m curious what they are going to do with all the left over Dokdo t-shirts once the promotion ends?
Personally I do not know any Koreans who would be willing to walk around in a “Do You Know?” t-shirt even though they are all die hard Dokdo supporters.
Reply
11:23 am on August 17th, 2008 15
Actually don’t you think that even if not one T-shirt sold, it has served its purpose. It shows that Dunkin’ Donuts is supportive of the Dokdo issue — like any good Korean should be. That’s the point of PR…even if the people wouldn’t be caught dead in that eye-sore, they still know that Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the good guys.
Reply
12:45 pm on August 17th, 2008 16
Kalani’s got it right: By wasting money printing up those cheap t-shirts, Dunkin’ Donuts earned its Korean credits to be spent on something else. Like when it’s inevitably discovered that donuts are an American plot to make Korean teenagers fat.
Reply
1:00 pm on August 17th, 2008 17
That’ll be the day, when protesters start chucking donuts at the American embassy.
Actually that doesn’t sound too bad. Hmm.
Reply
9:49 am on October 1st, 2008 18
[...] public links >> donuts Dunkin Donuts Offers Dokdo T-Shirts Saved by YamiValentine on Mon 29-9-2008 the greatest collection of unrelated links in blog [...]
4:07 pm on October 20th, 2008 19
I would have bought it! “… they are going to fail miserably in my opinion because these shirts are just plain dumb.” I see how one can think the shirt and the whole idea of seling it at dd is plain dumb. Anyway I definitely would have bought it. Isnt tha just exactly what your brother back home wants? Who would rather go for some Insadong touristy shirt?
Reply
4:15 pm on October 20th, 2008 20
What about the swastika shirt from one of the big chains? Not funny to wear a swastika, but as a souvenir? To bad?
Reply
8:54 pm on October 20th, 2008 21
“What about the swastika shirt from one of the big chains?”
Sure, why not. Chi Guevara shirts are popular and communism killed many more than Nazis.
Reply