There is Such a Thing as Bad Publicity and Burger King Just Proved This

Women Belong in the Kitchen? 

All it would have taken was an apostrophe, question mark, Quotes or some shock emoji… and Burger King might have been able to get away with what might have been the worst decision of the first quarter of 2021. Or not. 

The truth is that we will never know- because, as they say, “the cat is out of the bag.” 

If you ask the marketing comms gurus, they will tell you that they “got” what Burger King was “trying” to do- but immediately tell you just how much they bungled their IWD campaign. 

And here is why it is disappointing- this is not the Burger King we know. BK is known for good, if sometimes too obvious ads. But you love them anyway because, for those college days, Burger King was always an upgrade to the McDs that was a staple of your diet. 

In the world of brand wars,- Burger King had always had the upper hand over its rivals. In 2017 when they released the #nevertrustaclown ad trolling McDonald's- I thought that the rivals would come after them- but hey, sales rose, and you will never forget the hashtag. In 2019, they came after their rivals again with the “Burn that Ad” campaign- and sales skyrocketed in South America. And who can forget the legendary KFG! 

Needless to say, in the fast-food world of advertising- Burger King has been… well- the King. 

Until March 8, 2021… and BK joined failed attempts by brands to join mass movements- with other brands like Pepsi’s Kendal Jenner attempt to join the #blacklivesmatter movement and even Gillette with the infamous attempt at joining the #metoo movement. 

The good, the bad, the ugly

The good- you now know that BK has a foundation. Yay! 

The bad- they had good intentions gone bad- but as they say, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. They wanted to promote more females going into the restaurant business. In fact, if it was not for that headline, you might actually applaud them for their effort to encouraging and investing in their female staff member to become chefs. At the end of the day, their good intentions fell at the feet of execution. Instead of getting attention for their foundation, they ended up creating a PR crisis. 

The ugly- Misogyny in print. There have been campaigns for years - decades really- to create a space where women can be seen beyond just being homemakers. The days when Aeschylus decree in 467 B.C. that “Let women stay at home and hold their peace” are much behind us. There are women and movements that have worked hard to change this perception. But Burger King just wanted to remind us of that? For a brand such as Burger King to miss the point, oh so completely is no excuse for this bait and switch advertising. 

No advertising is bad advertising? 

Not true. There is a myth that marketers are taught from their early days in class - “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. This is such a fallacy. It might have worked in 1960 or even the early 1990s, but we now know better. Sure we can deep dive into the Paris Belle époque (1871-1914) that became the origin of the idea of a successful scandal- but that is a whole article in itself. 

There is such a thing as bad advertising. There is such a thing as bad PR. Today, no matter how well put together, PR stunts can hurt your brand in a way that you cannot recover. People have put so much faith and invested emotionally in your brand that you cannot be careless with how you build it. Just ask BP and that oil spill. 

In fact- let’s get over the idea that small PR miracles can even build your brand. They only last for a moment. In this case, Burger King has lost a lot of brand capital with this stunt. 

For those in Advertising, the bait and switch tactic where you shock and then inform is great when you tackle issues that are not needlepoint sensitive. But man does it suck when you get it wrong!

Look- Burger King really meant well with their message, but the timing and the movement they chose to associate with was just wrong for them.

Why, you might ask? After all, Nike has played this angle before and thrived, and if we are to be honest, built their brand on taking social issues and turning them into campaigns. 

Here is the problem- Burger King is a Burger joint. They don’t have the social capital to pull off such an ad and make it sound authentic or even remotely true to it’s intent. Did Burger King wake up one day and all of a sudden realize that women were important for their brand- and thus must capitalize on this audience? What a day to choose, though! 

A brand is not built on gimmicks. Your brand is your heartbeat. It is the organ that pumps blood into your organisation. Therefore, your brand MUST speak your truth and convey your authenticity. Warby Parker, Apple, Nike, Zappos, Netflix and even Hubspot will tell you that gimmicks only hurt your brand in the long run. You build your brand with authenticity. 

But will people stop eating Burger King? 

Probably Not. But I strongly suspect that their revenues will dip, not to mention their partnerships. There will be an uphill journey in rebuilding brand affinity, especially among women- and that is never a cheap exercise. How do you prove to millions of women that you actually meant well? 

Because they did mean well, Burger King wanted us to pay attention to the statistics. “Only 20% of the chefs are women- so here is what we are doing to change this statistic.” However, in the end, they created a conversation about how they are so out of sync with the times.

Is it possible that the headline was meant to be a joke? Maybe. We will really never know. 

Right now, there is just a group of outraged humans who are all just wondering… What did Fernando Machado think when he approved that Ad campaign to flight?