Apple VP asked to leave for crude remarks about women in TikTok video

The VP of Apple’s procurement team has left the company after a TikTok video of him went viral. In the video, the individual, Tony Blevins, made vulgar comments about women at the car show.

In the TikTok video, seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, as Blevins exits a Mercedes-Benz sports car, he says, “I race cars, play golf, and fondle big-breasted women.” This was in response to a question posed to him around what he does for a living. Apple confirmed his departure to CNBC.

This isn’t the first time the brand has parted with an employee due to sexist comments. Last year, Antonio García Martínez was told to leave after employees petitioned to investigate him due to his misogynistic statements in his autobiography. Martínez was formerly a product manager for ad targeting at Facebook.

According to reports on CNN, the petition said that employees were “concerned that his presence at Apple will contribute to an unsafe working environment”. During his departure, Apple told CNN that it strives to “create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted."

Currently employee branding, and how a company treats its employees, is a big part of customer experience and loyalty. Edelman’s report highlights that consumers must be able to “to trust the brand to do what is right” and 29% of respondents said how a company treats employees is crucial to the decision to be loyal to a brand.

Closer to home, in Japan, an executive at beef bowl restaurant Yoshinoya was also dismissed because he asked students at Tokyo University to come up with a marketing strategy that would get “innocent young girls” hooked on the meal, said a report on Japan Times. The company then let the individual go due to his “intolerable remarks regarding human rights and gender."

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