International Women’s Day is celebrated throughout the world to honour the women who have worked so hard for the rest of the world to have equality, justice and a voice; to continue fighting for women’s rights through intelligible means; and to bring to notice the many issues that women still face in the 21st century. 

However, a lot of companies throughout the world see this as an opportunity to gain clout, traction and be seen as a “woke” organisation while not really doing anything to make the lives of women easier. This is why many of their campaigns fail; because not only are they ignorant of the injustices women go through, they also do not understand the basics of empowering women on this momentous day. 

Here are a few companies that just couldn’t quite seem to understand what Women’s Day stands for and their campaigns which failed miserably in the past on International Women’s Day:

1. Burger King’s attempt at sending women back to the kitchen

In 2021, Burger King tweeted “Women belong in the kitchen” on women’s day.

While they did think they were going for a smart wordplay, the plan backfired, and the brand faced backlash for using patriarchal language to cater to their needs. Once they realised that their tweet had become viral for all the wrong reasons, they issued an apology, but the harm had been long done.

2. The Metropolitan Police in London and their hypocrisy

In 2022, the Metropolitan Police department tweeted on International Women’s Day and created quite a stir among the netizens. Not only were they bragging about having female officers, but they also ensured that these women would keep London safer for generations to come.

The campaign could have worked if abuse survivors had not called out the same department for failing to make them feel safe and to stop gendered hate crimes. Out of these abuse survivors, about 77% were women. Not to mention, the murder of Sarah Everard by an officer was dismissed saying there are a few “bad apples” in the department. The women in the department itself face misogyny and rape threats often, which makes us wonder that when women in the department are not safe, women are not safe because and despite of the department, how in the world did they expect the tweet to garner anything but criticism. 

3. Glorifying a murderer in the name of empowering women?

The London Dungeon in the UK held a ‘Jack becomes Jackie the Ripper’ exhibit.

The reason why they did this was because William Stewart, an author, suspected that it was in fact a woman named Mary Pearcy who committed the heinous crimes. However, that is not justification enough for the tourist attraction to alter parts of history in the pretence of empowering women. In their own words, “With men often stealing the spotlight when it comes to the ghastly and gory crimes, we wanted to give ladies their dues for International Women’s Day. Rather than the usual honouring, we’ve given the day a London Dungeon twist while telling a story that many may never have heard before.” They were scrutinised thoroughly on various social media platforms.

4. She! Is just the cover up for E!

NBC Universal owns the channel E! which they rebranded as She! for International Women’s Day. This is an example of yet another wordplay that fell on its face, and the reason for that is that the company was trying to redirect attention from all the sexual harassment cases filed against them at the time. Not only were there many cases that arose, the company also had a legal agreement with their employees that barred them from speaking up about their experiences in the organisation. This is a clear example of tokenism, and people from across the globe called them out for this. Netizens were also quick to comment on their non disclosure policy that gave them the agency to mistreat women in the workplace. 

5. Misguided trying their best to misguide us

Misguided posted on Instagram for International Women’s Day to celebrate “Girlbosses” around the world. Their motto for the celebration was “pay it forward,” and while it may seem like a great initiative, the campaign did not work in their favour primarily because the gender disparity in pay in their organisation takes away too much of the focus in the light of the event. People criticised their campaign and flooded their comments with questions about the inner workings of their company.

In 2019 alone, Misguided saw a 46% gender pay gap in favour of men. How about they pay what’s due before asking people to pay it forward?

6. Flipkart offering a sale on kitchen appliances for Women’s Day

What better way to celebrate women than to send them back to the kitchen, where they apparently belong? Flipkart offering a sale and targeting only one gender says a lot about what we still think about women and their overall role in society. Research shows that men make up for 80 - 90% of chefs while women hold only 10% of executive chef positions, earning nearly 22% less as compared to their male counterparts.

Then how come these ads are targeted towards the wrong gender? It’s because the work they have to pay men to do for luxury, women do it for free for survival. It’s the way we think about female empowerment; how Flipkart thought the most empowering thing for women is to have cheaper kitchen appliances to sustain a family for no remuneration at all.

Over the years, we have seen multiple great, thought provoking campaigns on International Women’s Day, which is why it is pertinent to not ignore when companies take advantage of a day meant to empower women to cater to their monetary needs. Let’s not forget, women have died, have been assaulted, shut down, imprisoned and shunned away for demanding the rights and privileges that we enjoy today. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a step towards mindful activism and ensure that no one exploits our rights and our narratives for a silly little promotion. 

References

1. BBC
2. The Independent
3. Forbes
4. Vox
5. i News