Shake Shack has come under fire for reportedly distributing World Cup merchandise that features an inaccurate South Korean flag at its branch in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates.
The controversy went viral on Tuesday after Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, shared a photo highlighting an oversized finger with nations' flags wrapped around it on social media. Seo said the image had been provided by a South Korean resident in Abu Dhabi.
The item, which appears to be a foam finger, displays the national flags of the 48 teams that qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
However, the South Korean flag shown in Seo’s photo contains several errors. The red-and-blue taegeuk symbol at its center is inaccurately depicted, while the four black trigrams normally positioned in each corner are missing.
Shake Shack lists 36 locations in South Korea and has recently begun celebrating its 10th anniversary here.
"This is a mistake that a global franchise should not be making," Seo said. "As a global company, it should at least conduct basic research into the countries and markets in which it operates its business," he added, urging the franchise to stop distributing the merchandise.
shwang9@heraldcorp.com
