New Zealand: Domino's drops controversial 'free pizza for Karen' offer after backlash

Domino's New Zealand has dropped a controversial 'free pizza for Karen' promotional offer after facing a backlash.

A giveaway titled "Calling all (nice) Karens" was introduced in New Zealand and Australia in which women named Karen were asked to tell Domino's in 250 words how they were one of the "nice ones".

While introducing the offer, Domino's chief marketing officer in the region, Allan Collins had said ''the name 'Karen' has been used in several memes as an insult to describe white middle-aged women often perceived to be obnoxious or racist.''

The pizza franchise's New Zealand arm retracted the offer after it was called ''tone-deaf'', and ''an issue that affected mostly privileged white women".

In order to give "Karens" a break from negativity and compensate for their wrongdoing they by rewarded 100 people with the name a chance to win free pizza.

The company issued an apology on its Facebook page saying ''it understood that its promotion lacked important context which led to people interpreting the competition in a different way than intended.''

''

"Our intention was one of inclusivity only. Our pizza brings people together and we only had this at the heart of the giveaway," the Facebook post added.

"We want you to know that we are always listening and learning and when we get it wrong, we fix it."

A woman in Melbourne was threatened earlier this month to sue hardware store Bunnings, after staff told her it was compulsory to wear a mask. The woman was later dubbed "Bunnings Karen".