A SERIES of Spanish brands came under fire on Sunday for promotions that coincided with Mother’s Day, which was celebrated in Spain on May 7.
Of these, the most serious was Spanish second-hand sales platform Wallapop, which sent out a message to users’ smartphones with the following message that looked like a missed call from ‘Mum’:
“She is calling you so that you sell what you are not using.”
On Twitter, users such as Lucía M. Taboada immediately complained to the company that the campaign was insensitive.
“Listen @wallapop,” she wrote. “My mother died five years ago. Today my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I got a notification that says ‘Mum. Missed call.’ I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t the best idea. Have a think about it.”
Given the flood of complaints on social media, on Monday the company issued a statement apologising for the misjudgement.
“With regard to your tweets and messages about the communication that we sent yesterday on the app for Mother’s Day, we would like to say to you that we deeply regret the hurt caused,” the message read.
“We have analysed what happened and taken note of your feedback to put in place more appropriate actions, and avoid this from happening again in the future,” it concluded.
The Carrera de la Mujer, meanwhile, a running race exclusively for women in Madrid, was also slammed after its winners were awarded a Thermomix kitchen robot.
The central Equality Ministry, which is run by leftist Unidas Podemos, called the prizes sexist, but the organisers of the event insisted that the robots were gifts from one of the sponsors for competitors and not prizes for winning the race.
And as Twitter user Laura Alberola pointed out, a pastries company was selling its products on Sunday with a picture inside of a woman with a croissant as a skirt, and a message reading: “Enjoy them, you can burn them off soon at the gym.”
She and other Twitter users considered the message to also be sexist. She did not specify which brand the box was from.
Cakes at the Madrid Open
The controversies followed another accusation of sexist treatment just a few days before, at the Madrid Open tennis tournament, which concluded on Sunday.
Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, who went on to win the tournament, was awarded a huge three-tier birthday cake for his 20th year by the organisers on centre court.
Belorussian player Aryna Sabalenka, meanwhile, also received a cake from the organisers, albeit a much smaller one.
A twitter user put together pictures of each player with their respective birthday gifts, with the message “The difference in cake size is amazing.”
Fellow Belarusian player Victoria Azarenka, number 16 on the WTA ranking, waded into the debate by commenting on the social network: “Couldn’t be more accurate on the treatment.”
Sabalenka also went on to win the women’s tournament in Madrid on Saturday.
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