Burger King stepped back and apologized after being hit online for promoting the International Women’s Day initiative under the slogan “women belong in the kitchen”.
The fast food chain announces its scholarship program to support women in the restaurant industry.
The Burger King arm in the UK announced it with a tweet that simply read: “Women belong in the kitchen.”
“If they want to, of course,” he read in a tweet later. “However, only 20% of chefs are women. We are on a mission to change the gender relationship in the restaurant industry, by empowering female employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career. ”
“We are proud to launch a new scholarship program that will help Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams!”
The chain also published a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, with the sexist expression in large letters, with a smaller text, describing the details of the initiative and calling for a poor representation of women in leadership roles in the restaurant industry.
“If there is a professional kitchen, the women belong there,” the ad reads.
The Burger King Foundation intends to provide $ 25,000 to each female employee to enroll in culinary studies at the Helping Equalize Restaurants Scholarship, according to its website.
The reaction was mixed, to say the least. Many commentators have called for the deliberate use of sexist troops to get clicks and headlines. Others accused him of missing the mark.
“Surely it’s not the day for that? Any day tbh. Do you attract media attention by being deliberately obtuse? By reinforcing stereotypes (even with seemingly good humor?) Not marketing or good behavior, ”said one critic. posted on Twitter.
“How much did these ads cost more than those scholarships are worth?” another Twitter user wrote.
Criticism worsened when Burger King refused to take feedback and doubled.
KFC Gaming posted a meme on Twitter in response to the original tweet, suggesting to delete the tweet immediately. The Burger King account in the UK responded: “Why would we delete a tweet that draws attention to the huge lack of representation of women in our industry? I thought you’d be on board with that too? ”
Finally, Burger King’s tweet was deleted on Monday night.
“It simply came to our notice then. I got the original tweet wrong and we’re sorry. ” a follow-up tweet read on, Burger King stating that his purpose was to draw attention to the problem. “We’ll do better next time.”
“We decided to delete the original tweet after our apology. We have been informed that there have been abusive comments in the thread and we do not want to leave the space open for this “, the account added in a second tweet.
The note did not refer to the full-page newspaper advertisement. Burger King did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Calling all HuffPost superheroes!
Sign up to become a member to become a founding member and help shape the next chapter of HuffPost