Oh no, Uber, what is you doing.
The ride-sharing service hasn’t been having a great time of late. It was exposed earlier this year as having a workplace culture where sexual harassment and discrimination festered, eventually leading to the forced resignation of CEO and founder Travis Kalanick.
It’s safe to say that this latest misstep doesn’t exactly come at an opportune time (if there ever was one).
A promotion for UberEats that invited husbands to “let your wife take a day off from the kitchen” was quickly removed after it was called out on social media.
The promotion, which was advertised in Bangalore, said:
“Dear husbands, a gentle reminder – today is Wife Appreciation Day! Order on UberEats and let your wife take a day off from the kitchen.”
Ewwwwww! pic.twitter.com/DRSiRY5yai
— kantri bumpkin (@zwimk) September 17, 2017
Uber quickly apologised, tweeting that the promotion was “totally inappropriate”.
This was totally inappropriate. We’ve removed it and we apologize.
— Uber Comms (@Uber_Comms) September 17, 2017
Uber’s chief brand ambassador, Bozoma Saint John, also tweeted that it was “completely unacceptable”.
Oh hell no. This is completely unacceptable. Will take care of this.
— Bozoma Saint John (@badassboz) September 17, 2017
It also isn’t the first time Uber Bangalore has been called out for using outdated gender stereotypes to promote its business.
Seriously @Uber? pic.twitter.com/gyvFMaF4dF
— therealjpk (@therealjpk) September 14, 2017
Yikes. Props to the company for dealing with it so quickly, but uh, maybe worth bringing whoever’s in charge over there up-to-date with how we’re talking about gender in 2017.
