If you call Butterball's Turkey Talk Line for some Thanksgiving cooking advice this year you might be surprised to hear a man's voice on the line.
For the first time ever, Butterball has hired men for their notorious Thanksgiving hotline, the Associated Press via CTV News reported.
The help line has been there for anyone experiencing turkey woes for 32 years, and now they're getting with the times. Last year they also took steps towards modernization by releasing "a smartphone app, Facebook live chats, Pinterest posts and other social media tools," the AP reported.
The line was founded in 1981 and employed only six operators, now that number has gone to 60, and all of them have been female. Butterball claimed they did not intentionally exlude men from their ranks, but they tended to hire by "word-of-mouth" and the candidates always turned out to be women.
"It's the perfect time, because we have seen more and more men involved in Thanksgiving dinner," Mary Clingman, director of the Butterball Turkey line, said.
She said that when the line was started in the 1980s only about nine percent of the incoming calls were from men, now one in four callers are male.
Butterball plans to offer an online application that will be open to males 25 and up.
"Male Cooks Wanted: We're looking for the first male Butterball Turkey Talk-Line Spokesman!" the turkey company tweeted.
The spokesman "will man the help line and offer turkey tips via media appearances," the AP reported. Positions are also open for male hotline operators that should be based in or around Chicago, near the hotline's headquarters.
Most Butterball Turley Talk Line employees have a background in food or nutrition, but the main requirement is: "You have to want to help people," Clingman said.
All operators will be required to take a "crash course" at the Butterball University training program before they start work.
"Thanksgiving is a holiday of tradition, but there is one thing that has changed over the years-more men than ever before are involved in preparing the Thanksgiving turkey. Butterball® is celebrating this shift in the kitchen by looking for the first male Turkey Talk-Line spokesman," Butterball's Turkey Talk Line recruitment Facebook page stated.
