The perils of shock-value advertising
What was meant to be a thought-provoking headline handed Burger King UK a whopper of a PR nightmare this past month. “Women belong in the kitchen” was meant to call attention to their corporate mandate of providing scholarships for women in the culinary field, but instead provided a case study in what not to do when promoting social causes.
The misogynist headline and tweet enraged so many world-wide that Burger King tweeted an immediate addition of “If they want to, of course.”, but then followed with “Why would we delete a tweet that’s drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we thought you’d be on board with this as well?”
Is any press good press? Guess the proof will be in the number of scholarships served up by BK over the next year.
On this topic, you might also enjoy these articles:
Forbes article: ‘Women Belong In The Kitchen’: Burger King’s International Women’s Day Tweet Goes Down In Flames
AdAge article: Agency sells Burger King merch that flips the script on chain’s flawed International Women’s Day campaign
