"Is the South Korean national flag a joke?"... Kyoungduk Seo calls Shake Shack's absurd merchandise "stop distribution immediately"

[Financial News] Shake Shack, the well-known U.S. hamburger chain that has launched an aggressive global marketing campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is facing controversy after distributing poorly made South Korean national flag souvenirs.
On the 15th, Sungshin Women's University professor Kyoungduk Seo revealed on his social networking service (SNS) the previous day that he had received a tip from a customer who bought a World Cup set menu at a Shake Shack store in Abu Dhabi and was given merchandise featuring an incorrect South Korean national flag.
The merchandise in question is a green, finger-shaped glove souvenir made by Shake Shack with the flags of the World Cup co-hosts, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as the 48 countries that advanced to the finals.
However, the South Korean national flag printed on the souvenir bore little resemblance to an actual national flag. The four geongon-gamri trigrams, a key symbol, were completely omitted, and the central taegeuk emblem was crudely distorted into a simple circle split in half between red and blue. In effect, it was a design of unknown origin, with only a two-colored circle on a white background.
Professor Seo strongly criticized the incident, calling it a major blunder by a global Food and Beverage (F&B) brand. "It is unthinkable for a world-famous hamburger chain to make such a fatal mistake with a national flag, which symbolizes a country," he said. "We plan to send a protest email to Shake Shack's headquarters and demand that distribution of the merchandise be stopped immediately."
The criticism is even sharper because Shake Shack's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) recently pledged to significantly expand global sports marketing in line with the World Cup.
Seo pointed out that "producing and distributing such inaccurate souvenirs undermines the meaning of the World Cup, a festival of football," adding that "to become a truly global company, basic respect for the culture and information of the countries it does business with must come first."
Meanwhile, this is not the first time multinational companies based overseas have sparked controversy by misrepresenting another country's flag or territory during marketing campaigns. In the past, global fashion brands and major food and beverage companies have often drawn the South Korean national flag incorrectly or made errors in references to the East Sea and Liancourt Rocks, sometimes drawing fierce backlash from consumers at home and abroad and coming close to boycotts.
moon@fnnews.com Moon Young-jin Reporter