An ad campaign promoting Burger King scholarships for female employees missed the mark on Monday after the brand's UK counterpart tweeted, "Women belong in the kitchen."
It later added, "If they want to, of course."
The burger joint's International Women's Day tweet got grilled for resonating as sexist. The company's global chief marketing officer then explained it was not their intention to offend women in their workforce.
The Burger King Tweet for International Women's Day
As Forbes reported, Burger King launched a new IWD campaign on Monday to announce it is investing in scholarship to develop women's culinary skills in the US, UK, Mexico and elsewhere worldwide. When 24 percent of US chefs and seven percent of head chefs are women, the goal was to help close the gender gap. However, those good intentions were overshadowed due to a single tweet from the company.
Restaurant Brands International CMO Fernando Machado, who is also the Global CMO for Burger King, an RBI subsidiary, said that there were many lessons learned from the mistake, but he shared his hope that in time, people will see that the company's intentions were positive.
"In the end we are indeed doing something positive, but the headline we used ended up offending people, especially when used without the context around it," Machado said.
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Burger King has several women in leadership roles across its marketing teams. The company's U.S. CMO, Ellie Doty, joined in June, and its marketing chiefs in the U.K. and Spain are also women. Machado pointed out that other RBI restaurant subsidiaries such as Popeyes and Tim Hortons also have female CMOs.
Machado explained that the company is not perfect for representation, but it is making good progress towards having more diverse teams. NBC reported that one Georgetown University professor, Kerry O'Grady, said the people worldwide saw the ad as a poor attempt at clickbait that played off of the struggles of women.
O'Grady continued that if Burger King wanted to use sexism as clickbait, it's not celebrating International Women's Day. By Tuesday, Burger King deleted the tweet and apologized, saying it missed the mark on calling attention to the relative lack of women in foodservice leadership. It has been brought to the company's attention that there were abusive comments in the thread, and it does not want to leave the space open for that.
Lessons Learned by Burger King
In a Burger King statement, the company admitted that the tweet was designed to draw attention. The company wrote that it was their mistake to not include the full explanation in their initial tweet and have adjusted their activity moving forward because the company is sure that when people read the entirety of their commitment, they will share the burger joint's beliefs in this vital opportunity.
We hear you. We got our initial tweet wrong and we’re sorry. Our aim was to draw attention to the fact that only 20% of professional chefs in UK kitchens are women and to help change that by awarding culinary scholarships. We will do better next time.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021
We decided to delete the original tweet after our apology. It was brought to our attention that there were abusive comments in the thread and we don't want to leave the space open for that.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021
According to PR Daily, opinions about the Burger King tweet have been divided. Lauryn Bayley, PR and content development intern in Flackable, called it a failed attempt at going outside the box. Meanwhile, Katie Delahay Paine, founder and chief executive at Paine Communications, said it was brilliant for focusing people's attention on a real issue.
Aside from mixed reactions to Burger King's controversial messaging, the Twitter thread's backlash highlights the importance of providing context across social media platforms.
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