Burger King tweet goes viral on International Women’s Day for all the wrong reasons

International Woman’s Day takes place every year on March 8, however fast food giants Burger King have commemorated the day’s events in a Tweet many have branded as sexist. 

A single glance at Twitter on March 8 will let you know that it’s International Women’s Day. With some of the world’s biggest brands and stars coming together to speak out against sexism, everyone has their own way of honoring the event.

Burger King, however, took an approach that many deemed to be sexist. Earning overwhelming criticism and even a trend for their troubles, the fast-food behemoth split the Twitter-sphere right down the middle.

Here’s where everything went wrong.

Burger King tweet branded as sexist

The brand’s UK Twitter account dropped the bombshell in the early hours of the morning. Writing that “women belong in the kitchen,” the tweet was immediately attacked for the sexist connotations that it appears to promote. After a few hours and going very viral, BK decided to delete the tweet.

As the floodgates opened and angry Twitter users descended, the UK team attempted to salvage things with a series of responses below.

While the intent of the original Tweet might have been to promote Burger King’s new scholarship program for its employees, it seems to have missed the mark entirely.

Burger King deletes the tweet

A few hours and thousands upon thousands of angry and mocking replies later, Burger King UK decided to take down and delete the poorly-received tweet.

They claim they finally took the post down after they noticed that “there were abusive comments in the thread, and we don’t want to leave the space open for that.”

Twitter reacts

One of the brand’s main competitors, KFC, responded from their gaming account hinting to Burger King to remove the tweet.

The response was simply that the tweet wouldn’t be deleted as it is “drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry.” The post then goes on to criticise KFC for not being “on board” with the idea.

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Prominent former League of Legends caster Indiana ‘Froskurinn’ Black also weighed in on the situation, writing that “that Burger King tweet is already being loaded into social media decks as an example of what not to do.”

New York Times’ tech reporter Taylor Lorenz also attacked the now-deleted tweet, asking “why do we still allow brands to Tweet?”

From across every sector people have either come together to condemn or condone the Tweet, but either way Burger King have certainly garnered quite the audience.