If You Can't Take The Heat
Well, Burger King got grilled for a tweet and a full-page ad in the New York Times.
As anyone who read the copy would know, this ad was promoting Burger King’s scholarship program designed to send its female employees to culinary school. Only 24% of chef positions in America are occupied by women. Head chefs? Fewer than 7%. That’s what people should be riled up about. Not the headline.
The headline was designed to get attention. Which it damn well did. But the attention was supposed to be focused on what Burger King is doing to address this problem in the culinary industry. The ad promotes the idea of more women in professional kitchens, especially low-income women who may be starting their career at Burger King. Unfortunately today many people don’t read beyond the headline. And they don’t understand irony, context or the other things that make this a great ad.
Great ad headlines can use a wicked sense humor to get an audience to connect with a serious message. The only thing Burger King did wrong here was to cave to the squelchers. They let ‘em have it their way and took it down and did the usual phony apology. Like so many other gutless advertisers, they went glass jaw. They couldn’t take the punch and they threw in the towel. No mas! Steve Jobs or Phil Knight would have stayed the course. Another win for the squelchers in this play-it-safe world. Like Buck Norman says, the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe. Keep your dukes up.