Burger King got themselves into quite the scandal yesterday, which was International Women’s Day. Burger King UK tweeted “Women belong in the kitchen” which was followed by tweets that explained that is why they are donating money towards culinary scholarships for females. This did NOT go down well. I honestly don’t even know how this got approved in the first place because it obviously comes off as derogatory at first glance. This is called clickbait, and no big corporation should take part in clickbait like this since it could be offensive and damaging to their reputation. My sister works for the corporate office of Burger King, and I got to hear about the scandal firsthand. As soon as she told me, I went to Twitter, but by that time, the tweet had been taken down and an apology was issued.
The tweet was insensitive and there are alternative ways they could have incorporated International Women’s Day into their marketing(#BurgerQueen). The effort and donation are nice and generous, but why get attention for clickbait instead of for the act of kindness? Burger King is receiving a lot of hate, as they should, in my opinion. A huge company’s tweets and marketing plans go through many people on all levels, so this shouldn’t have been passed in the first place. The flyer below was presented, passed, and printed. As a woman, seeing that initial statement is off-putting, so were there no female employees who felt this way before it was published? It is in huge bold print: “Women belong in the kitchen.” On International Women’s day especially, be sensitive and careful when making a bold move like this. If this statement was even slightly questioned, why publish it for the whole world to see? Why bring negative energy to a day that is meant to uplift and empower?
I don’t want to come off as sensitive or overly critical, but just think about it- a huge multi-BILLION dollar company made a marketing plan for International Women’s day with the headline “Women belong in the kitchen” in order to attract attention through clickbait. It seems illogical because it obviously could seem offensive, derogatory, or negative in general, and their scholarships to culinary school were overlooked because of it.
What do you think about the tweet and marketing strategy? Was this a smart move?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/08/burger-king-tweet-women/
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