Burger King MY says it does not condone staff who shamed women on TikTok

Burger King Malaysia has issued a statement confirming that a TikTok video shaming three women for not fasting was posted by an employee. "It is with much regret that we confirm that the post was made by an employee of Burger King Malaysia. However, we do not condone such behaviour," Burger King said in a statement on Facebook. It added that it will take appropriate action against the employee, and will take steps to ensure that similar incidents do not happen in the future. "At Burger King Malaysia, we truly value and respect our customer's privacy," it said.

Burger King Malaysia's statement comes after a TikTok user, who works at one of the Burger King outlets, uploaded a video showing the CCTV footage of three women eating in the outlet earlier this week. The post also captioned in Malay, loosely translated said: "To the three women wearing tudung (head scarves) that ordered nine pieces of nuggets, cheesy fries, ice lemon tea and dined in, don’t you feel bad for customers who are fasting?”

A quick check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on TikTok found that the original video has been taken down. 

Netizens' reactions to Burger King Malaysia's statement were split. Most users felt sorry for Burger King being held responsible for the acts of "TikTok kids", with many questioning why the staff had to be so nosey. For instance, one user questioned if the employee's resolve was so weak that he would cave into temptation if he saw others eating.

However, there were also some who, though not in favour of the employee's actions, said that the women were also partly to blame."For Muslim women who cannot fast, no matter what the reason, shouldn't eat in public like that," one user commented. 

This is not the first time a brand has gotten negative attention due to comments made by an employee. In 2018, Fitness First Singapore has put out a statement on social media regarding the suspension of one of its employees, who body-shamed a woman for ordering at an ice cream parlor. The employee, who is a trainer at the gym, posted a picture of a woman near an ice cream store on his Instagram stories function calling her “fat” and described the act as “disgusting”.

The trainer has since apologised but the post, nonetheless, prompted the brand to put out a statement on social media apologising for “any distress caused” by the “insensitive statement”.

Meanwhile, in 2016, an employee from Canon took to Facebook and put up a post where he stated that he wanted to “open fire” on the LGBT community, and was later fined by the district court for the post being threatening. Meanwhile, in the same year an employee from the property portal, 99.co, was fired for his post on Facebook where he used derogatory terms in relation to Singapore for not being one of the first nations to launch Pokemon Go.

According to experts in the PR industry, such instances definitely impact the image of the company the employees are from. As such, companies should not expect that every employee will have the common sense not to post anything negative. To safeguard against such situations, companies must quickly make it clear that it is the opinion of the sole employee, and not of the company.

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