The account for Burger King United Kingdom tweeted “Women belong in the kitchen.” in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.

The next tweet read, “If they want to, of course yet only 20% of chefs are women. We’re on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry by empowering female employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career.”

To everyone’s relief, it turns out that Burger King is not a blatantly misogynist burger corporation; they were only using the line as an attention-grabber to further social change. 

This joins a long list of blunders caused by corporation’s inability to use social media effectively. One example that comes to mind is when Planters Peanuts ran an ad campaign that Mr. Peanut had died. Unintentionally, headlines about Mr. Peanut’s death ran side by side with headlines about Kobe Bryant’s death.

These instances really make you wonder who is giving these ideas the green light? Did nobody at Burger King headquarters in London think it might have been tone deaf to use a sexist one-liner as clickbait? Why was it necessary to run a campaign about a food mascot suffering a tragic death? 

An even better question is why do these brands even need Twitter accounts? Nothing they tweet is worth reading, and there sure aren’t any discounts making them worth following. 

Burger King’s most recent tweet reads, “idk how to explain it, but jalapeño cheddar bites have thursday energy.” Reading this sentence makes me want to rip my hair out. It’s not funny or clever, and it boils down to nothing more than an advertisement.  Burger King’s 1.9 million followers willingly signed up to read advertisements.

Perhaps more infuriating than out of touch memes are the “we are all in this together” campaigns that nearly every company has done during the pandemic on both social media and TV.  When I see one of these ads, I don’t exactly rest any easier knowing that Wendy’s and Coca-Cola are on my side during these difficult times. 

This was painfully evident during this year’s Super Bowl, as I can’t remember one commercial that aimed for comedy, but many reminded us that they have my back during these unprecedented times. 

Do not be fooled by these companies. Everything they do is to sell more products.

Burger King is not the only company to make a Tweet celebrating International Women’s Day; they all did. They hijack social justice campaigns in order for more demographics to buy their products. Burger King just wanted to make headlines for a bold tweet, and it backfired.  By tweeting “we are all in this together,” companies want to establish an emotional connection with consumers, so they buy the product.