Burger King’s United Kingdom Twitter account took a significant risk in an attempt to raise awareness for International Women’s Day.
What We Know:
- The tweet ‘Women belong in the kitchen was shared on social media isolated without context, and many people felt that the tweet was proactive.
- Adweek reported that the viral tweet had more to it. The rest of the tweet explained how the brand wanted to see more women in culinary leadership positions and create a new scholarship program to help them achieve those ambitions. The tweet was based on the print ad on Business Insider. Which announced Burger King’s H.E.R. (Helping Equalize Restaurants) wants to provide scholarships for female employees who want to pursue culinary degrees.
- An hour after the tweet was tweeted, it got deleted by the social media team running Burger King United Kingdom. The tweet was removed because of toxic and threatening comments in the replies, mostly women criticizing Burger King UK.
Proof this could have even fit in one tweet
Please don’t use sexism as clickbait. The men in my mentions proves the damage you’re causing by doing this. pic.twitter.com/G0VKGgiZQp
— Becca (@BeccaBeckery) March 8, 2021
- Burger King replied with a thoughtful tweet apologizing for the tweet that was sent out, and the aim was to draw attention to the low number of professional chefs in the UK kitchen.
- The phrase “Women belong in the kitchen” was in big white letters on a New York Times print ad, and below it explained fine-dining kitchens. The intent was to call out all food truck kitchens, award-winning kitchens, casual dining kitchens, and Burger King kitchens, implying that if there is a professional kitchen, women belong there as well.
The company wanted to change the woman’s stereotype by bringing awareness to a bigger problem in the restaurant industry. Unfortunately, the awkward timing and verbiage changed the narrative of the tweet.
