Burger King Sparks a Female Uproar
“Post has now been published”: Why There is No Turning Back When These Five Words Appear.
Today, social media plays an integral part of any marketing campaign, as a tool to attract, influence, and entertain consumers. The use of social media in marketing has led to several benefits for the marketing industry. Nonetheless, social media has one major drawback since internet never lets a brand forget a mistake or misstep. There is a permanent record. Even a strong crisis management strategy cannot undo unexpected social media failures. With the click of one button, a fully developed marketing plan may be misinterpreted by a target audience leading to brand disaster. Social media’s greatest lesson to marketers remains that errors need to be owned and reacted to in real time. Once again, the consumer is always right.
Womens Day Gone Wrong
Recently, brands have begun relying on social media as a way of connecting with their consumers, especially on national holidays. For example, on International Women’s day, many brands leverage social media to voice their support for female empowerment, and celebrate women around the world. On International Womens Day in 2021, Burger King UK published a tweet, “Women belong in the kitchen” which was followed by two more tweets, one saying “If they want to, of course” and the third one announcing their new scholarship program to help women get a degree in culinary arts and reduce the gender gap in the restaurant sector. While well- intentioned, female consumers stopped when they saw that first tweet, and responded with fury.
What Did They Really Mean?
Not displayed on Twitter was the full- page ad in The New York Times (below) which shows Burger King’s statement followed by a full explanation about the culinary scholarship program, to combat the gender disparity in chef and head chef roles throughout the industry. The full article highlighted that women occupy only 7% of head chef positions in America, and Burger King wanted to change that. However, Burger King’s use of the tag line, “Women belong in the kitchen” resulted anger, frustration, and backlash from women on a day meant for celebration.
We are at a time where women have cracked the glass ceiling and hold a wide range of careers across many industries and government. Despite good intentions, a tweet left many voicing concern that the Burger King brand is sexist, and the brand was met with backlash, anger, and disappointment. Within a couple hours, Burger King recognized the viral negativity their tweet triggered. Burger King deleted the thread, issued an apology, and an explanation of the tweet.
The Power of Misinterpretation
Burger King’s social media disaster demonstrates the risk when brands use cheeky humour and get playful with social media marketing, without being mindful of the permanence of the platform. Various social media platforms serve different purposes, and content is absorbed differently, which is critical for brands to understand when executing their strategy. Consumers use Twitter to read quick statements or brief sentences, so after the initial “Women belong in the kitchen” was read, the follow up tweets became irrelevant to consumers despite their explanation of the rationale for the scholarship. This disaster could have been avoided had Burger King considered how the statement could be received without understanding the context. While many consumers felt the statement was still sexist even within the context of the campaign, if Burger King combined all three tweets into one, consumers could understand their original intent without taking as much offense.
While consumers may have forgiven Burger King for their social media mishap, damage done through social media can be irreversible, and hinder reputation in the long term. Before posting on social media, brands should look at their content and think about whether there is potential for misinterpretation, offensiveness, and have plans in place to manage angry consumers when crisis does occur.
