‘Woke’ brands and the decline of corporate Twitter
On the 8th of March 2021 at 1:01 am Burger King UK tweeted ‘Women belong in the kitchen.’ This was subsequently followed by a tweet clarifying only ‘if they want to, of course.’ However, the damage had been done, what followed was an endless barrage over the clearly sexist and tone-deaf approach to celebrating International Women’s Day.
But what had led up to this tweet? What made this fast-food chain believe that this was a perfectly acceptable way to appeal to the public and gain support? And why did an American orange juice brand suggest that they were suicidal?
There is no argument- no matter how depressing it seems- that branding, and corporations are a large part of everyday life. We are constantly confronted by endless advertisements from the television to the phone to the laptop. Yet, these are the ads that put up no front, they are clearly there to sell you something but they’re nice! They’re straightforward! They aren’t cosplaying as your new woke bestie who has no hidden agenda to get you to buy the new Mcshit Burger.
Every few weeks or so, a brand goes viral for tweeting something provocative or painfully ironic. It’s a way to put a fake self-aware face onto any brand and connect them to potential customers. These are the new sneaky adverts that hide in plain sight. They propel themselves headfirst into various sub-cultures and make ‘funny’ relevant comments to show “Sure we’re a brand! But we’re most definitely a COOL brand!”
At the forefront of this movement, is our old friend Burger King UK. A smug face among the corporate Twitter circus. They hit it off with various self-referential tweets.
But none were really hitting the jackpot of brand Twitter virality. They had even tried mocking their competition.
Still no gold. So, then we arrive on International Women’s Day and the fated tweet, a classic bait (sexism) and reveal (actually no sexism! Hooray!). They were bound to get famous with this one…And who would’ve guessed it they did… Probably not in the way they wanted though.
Now you may be asking “Why do you even care? No-one falls for this, we’re smart enough to know when a brand is trying to seduce us with fake wokeness or performative activism.”
And what I’ve got to say is; “Shut up this is my story; I can be angry about what I want.”
No, there is just something that irks me about this façade brands put up. It's like going to a school reunion and the girl who obviously works for an MLM starts complimenting your hair. It’s like “Alright thanks for the praise Melanie but no I don’t think I would be perfect for this new business opportunity. I don’t think manipulating people is very #girlboss actually.”
This humanisation of brands is a worrying trend as it allows people to feel connected to a corporate entity possibly leading to parasocial relationships. Because they’re entertaining and relatable which means they can do no wrong! And if you’re the one tweeting “Hey remember that’s a brand and doesn’t love you.” Suddenly you’re the buzzkill.
So, what happens next? Who knows, maybe McDonalds will tweet out a slur. All I know is that this sort of advertisement never ends well. There is a complete disconnect between a brand's company behaviour and the new personified marketing front. This means that sooner or later what they say is going to clash with what they do.
And maybe Burger King should rebrand to Burger Queen just to be on the safe side.
