They say timing is everything and the soon to be rolled out Twitter ‘cancel button‘ is perhaps a tad too late for the BK brand to save face.
Presumably coming out of one of those brainstorming meetings usually saved for sitcoms, Burger King‘s latest marketing move was to be a celebration of International Women‘s Day but alas has set a TwitterStorm off instead.
‘Women belong in the kitchen’ was the 20-character Tweet posted on BK‘s official profile a couple of hours ago on Monday 8 March.
It has since gone viral, and not for the right reasons.
Intended to highlight that women account for only 20% of staff in the UK restaurant industry, the PR stunt has instead shone a light on misogynist thinking.
The key message is found in a secondary thread post, just below the inflammatory original, and is being viewed 20 times as often (at time of writing) but it is not just this fact that has irked many.
The use of what is considered to be one of the oldest sexist tropes in the book is terribly ill-conceived and the positioning of it on International Women‘s Day is but a sour garnish.
In the days of cancel culture being what they are, Burger King‘s marketing team may well be feeling the heat.
Some two hours after the original tweet, Burger King added the announcement of a new scholarship programme aimed at their female employees.
