Sometimes, an advert put out for a social cause doesn’t go down well with the public, no matter how good the intentions are. That’s what happened with a major fast food chain recently when their attempt at sarcasm backfired.

Burger King UK posted a tweet that said ‘Women belong in the kitchen’, that was actually meant as a criticism of the male-dominated cooking industry. However, it faced massive backlash online.

Twitter

The tweet was originally meant to promote its new scholarship for female chefs. It was about helping increase the number of women in head-chef roles. The ad elaborates,

Fine dining kitchens, food truck kitchens, award-winning kitchens, casual dining kitchens, ghost kitchens, Burger King kitchens. If there’s a professional kitchen, women belong there,” the ad continued. “But can you guess who’s leading those kitchens these days? Exactly. Only 24% of chef positions in America are occupied by women. Want to talk head chefs? The number drops to fewer than 7%.
Business Insider

However, people accused the brand of being tone-deaf on Women’s Day, and of using a sexist trope as clickbait. Basically, the whole thing got a lot of hate online.

The Burger King Twitter handle finally took stock of the situation, and deleted the tweet. They also apologised and said they were wrong.

Regardless, the damage was already done, and the internet showed that apart from your intentions, the execution should also be done in the right manner.