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Burger King’s International Women’s Day Tweet Backfires… or did it?

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Monday was International Women’s Day, and to celebrate, the fast food chain announced that they are investing in scholarships to help women develop culinary skills because they are severely underrepresented in professional kitchens. Only 24% of US chefs and 7% of head chefs are women. The problem with this announcement, it came in the form of a tweet from Burger King U.K. that said, “Women belong in the kitchen.”

There were subsequent tweets that explained their initiative, but it was missed by many twitter users. They’ve since backtracked their original tweet and have said:

“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.”

The original tweet was not by accident and was not posted by a disgruntled employee. It was part of a tailored message which also appeared in The New York Times. That ad showed the same, “Women belong in the kitchen” headline with smaller text explaining the full message.

So, the question to ask is — if we’re all talking about it, did the message backfire? Surely it was poor taste, but as they say, there’s no negative press.

San Diego resident for over 10 years, I now call this beautiful city home. Originally from the Bay Area, I'm a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, fitness, food, and a good craft beer (from San Diego of course).

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