Burger King backtracked and apologized after being criticized online for publicizing its International Women’s Day initiative under the slogan “women belong in the kitchen”.
The fast food chain was announcing its scholarship program to support women in the restaurant industry.
Burger King’s UK arm announced this with a tweet that simply said, “Women belong in the kitchen.”
“If they want to, of course,” read a subsequent tweet. “However, only 20% of chefs are women. We are on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry, empowering employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career. “
“We are proud to launch a new scholarship program that will help Burger King employees to pursue their culinary dreams!”
The chain also ran a full-page ad in The New York Times with the sexist phrase in large print, with a shorter text explaining the details of the initiative and highlighting the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in the restaurant industry.
“If there is a professional kitchen, women should be there,” says the ad.
The Burger King Foundation plans to award $ 25,000 each to two employees to enroll in culinary studies under the Helping Equalize Restaurants scholarship, according to its website.
The reaction was mixed, to say the least. Many commentators have called attention to the deliberate use of the sexist trope to get clicks and headlines. Others accused him of missing the mark.
“Is it certainly not the day for this? Any day too. Getting media attention for being deliberately obtuse? Reinforcing stereotypes (even if apparently in a good mood?) It is not good marketing or behavior ”, a critic tweeted.
“How much more do these ads cost than scholarships are worth?” other Twitter user wrote.
Criticism worsened when Burger King refused to listen to the comments and doubled the volume.
KFC Gaming tweeted a meme in response to the initial tweet, suggesting that they delete the tweet immediately. THE UK Burger King account response: “Why would we delete a tweet that is drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we think you would also agree with that?”
Eventually, Burger King’s tweet was deleted on Monday night.
“We heard you. We thought our initial tweet was wrong and we’re sorry, ” a follow-up tweet I read, with Burger King reaffirming that its goal was to draw attention to the problem. “We will do better next time.”
“We decided to delete the original tweet after our apology. We were informed that there were abusive comments on the topic and we don’t want to leave the space open for that ”, added the account in a second tweet.
The note did not address the full-page newspaper ad. Burger King did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
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