So, uh, Burger King's official UK Twitter account decided to post an interesting tweet for International Women's Day...
Now, it's important to also note that they added these responses.
To which I was like, cool! A scholarship for female chefs! We love to see it!
But, uh...could they have gone about it another way? One that didn't involve tweeting something objectively misogynistic to get the clicks, then pulling a "Gotcha! We actually like women!" response?
Personally, I can't help but feel that this made light of the sexist comments women actually receive on a daily basis, and using the phrase at all (especially with the actual context in a whole new tweet instead of directly after the phrase) was a pretty cheap move on a day that's supposed to be about celebrating women.
They've now deleted the tweets and apologized, but still, people are not happy.
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.
Many noted that the US account didn't post the same tweet (likely due to the backlash), but that the company had taken out a giant ad in the New York Times with the same message.
The funniest thing about the Burger King "tweet" is that it clearly wasn't just a tweet. This was a whole international campaign that the UK timezone just got first. They can decide against tweeting it from the US account but they couldn't pull the New York Times ad fast enough🤷♂️
People were pretty quick to drag Burger King.
Burger King smart they know they can’t be cancelled cuz no one eats there in the first place
Comedian Chelsea Peretti had a pretty great response.
@BurgerKingUK Burger King belongs in a trashcan.
And some people just took the opportunity to make pretty hilarious jokes.
Burger King when they apologize
...And this...
burger king's female employees asking for equal pay
...And this...
burger king after tweeting "women belong in the kitchen"
...And this.
just showed up for my first day at Burger King and they told me this was the uniform ?
So yeah, happy International Woman's Day, ladies!
