BK Stunt Tackles Unfairness of Pink Tax
Burger King has staged a number of in-restaurant social experiments to draw attention to major issues, including one last fall around bullying.
This time, Burger King is going after the so called “Pink Tax,” a sneaky tactic used by retailers and other companies to charge women more than men for the same products or services. It remains a stubborn issue that has many women seeing red but that has yet to be resolved.
Using one of its restaurants as a backdrop, Burger King staged a stunt charging unsuspecting female customers $3.09 for a serving of Chicken Fries, while men were charged $1.69 for the same item; that’s about an 83% surcharge. When customers complained, the cashier remarked that the price is higher because the fries were packaged in a pretty pink box decorated with eyelashes and a bow.
Dubbed the “Burger King Chick Tax,” the company filmed the stunt and posted the video— which has more than 120,000 views—on YouTube as it did with its anti-bullying campaign.
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In the Chick Tax video, woman can be seen pushing back on the price with one exclaiming, “ I’m not going to pay extra!” and another pointing out, “I ordered the same thing he did.”
The name Pink Tax comes from the fact that many of the products that women pay more for are pink, like razors, shampoo and deodorant, but they also pay more for items like jeans and even toys marketed to little girls. It is considered a form of gender-based price discrimination that adds up to thousands of dollars more per year for women.
Last October, during National Bullying Prevention Month, Burger King brought attention to the pervasive problem of bullying through a partnership and social experiment with NoBully.org. That video now has almost 6 million views.
