It’s the attempt to go viral without considering the implications of tweeting “women belong in the kitchen.”
Burger King marketing executives made a bold effort to be savvy, evocative and, according to some, disrespectful with the simple and seemingly misogynistic tweet from its Burger King UK account. About 4 a.m. ET, the UK account sent a tweet “women belong in the kitchen,” and they followed up to that tweet offering the caveat “if they want to, of course.”
The thread goes on to explain that only 20% of all chefs are women, so the fast-food chain would be “empowering female employees” by offering a scholarship to pursue their culinary careers. The tweet wraps up with the hashtag #IWD to recognize that the slightly confusing tweet thread was a part of their efforts to celebrate women on International Women’s Day.
The tweets were well-intentioned, but they are being referred to as a bait-and-switch approach. Despite calls for the ad to be taken down, the tweet still sits on the Twitter account to the dismay of hundreds of livid users. The campaign for the scholarship does not stop with social, according to a report by the AV Club. The burger brand has also placed a full-page ad in The New York Times with the same verbiage from the tweet.
It’s being dubbed the worst “Women’s Day brand tweet” of the day so far.
“There are still so many hours left before we’ll be able to say with certainty that Burger King wears the crown for this year’s worst Women’s Day brand tweets,” read an excerpt from the AV Club article. “But, given that the company is so proud of its “women belong in the kitchen” line that it’s taken out a full-page ad featuring the sentence in the New York Times, any pretenders to the title are going to have to have something pretty stunning prepared if they want to come at the King.”
Many on Twitter categorically agreed, with some tweeting that the burger chain “belongs in a trashcan” for its marketing stunt.
Hours after sending the tweet, the creators behind the BurgerKingUK account, which has more than 82,000 followers, defended the social media move.
“Why would we delete a tweet that’s drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we thought you’d be on board with this as well? We’ve launched a scholarship to help give more of our female employees the chance to pursue a culinary career.”
Some were supportive of the tweet.
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