Uber has apologised after a promotional message that asked men to let their wives “take a day off from the kitchen” and order food through their service sparked online backlash.
Uber Bangalore sent its customers a message on Sunday that offered users of UberEats a 100-Rupee (£1.16) discount on orders of more than 400 Rupees (£4.62) to mark “Wife Appreciation Day”.
People took to social media to slam the promotional stunt, with many accusing the taxi firm of reinforcing gender stereotypes in India.
Ewwwwww! pic.twitter.com/DRSiRY5yai
— Asawari Ghatage (@11ty1) September 17, 2017
hi @dkhos, @badassboz, would be great if your $69 billion company stopped perpetrating regressive gender stereotypes in India. https://t.co/jr2UXxsBGn
— ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@PranavDixit) September 17, 2017
How does this kind of a message even pass @Uber 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/bFDPTsb18K
— Baba Manhattani (@BabaGlocal) September 17, 2017
Thank you @Uber for defining gender roles in India. Of course women are meant to slog it out in the kitchen & the men need to BUY us freedom https://t.co/EW57ZyXdnG
— Rashi Kakkar (@rashi_kakkar) September 17, 2017
Sorry @uber but why do you think that only the "wife" needs to be at the kitchen! 😐 pic.twitter.com/HzjlBsdT34
— Hemanth.HM (@GNUmanth) September 16, 2017
The backlash caught the eye of Uber’s chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John, who vowed to “take care of this”, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.
Oh hell no. This is completely unacceptable. Will take care of this.
— Bozoma Saint John (@badassboz) September 17, 2017
A few hours later, Uber tweeted an apology for the “totally inappropriate” promotion and said that it had been removed.
This was totally inappropriate. We've removed it and we apologize.
— Uber Comms (@Uber_Comms) September 17, 2017
The incident is the latest in a long line of Uber PR fails.
Earlier this year, the company was accused of allowing a driver who sexually assaulted a passenger to strike again, which led to the resignation of its former CEO Travis Kalanick.