“Every school should have access to A.1.,” wrote the condiment brand, poking fun at Linda McMahon’s flub
A recent panel with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon left viewers wondering if she was referring to artificial intelligence or steak sauce.
When discussing technology in schools, McMahon, 76, touted the importance of “A1” — and while she presumably was referring to “AI,” the brand A.1. Sauce had some fun with the viral flub.
“AI development – I mean, how can we educate at the speed of light if we don’t have the best technology around to do that?” McMahon asked during the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego on April 8, using the acronym correctly in that instance.
However, she went on to recall, “There was a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching every year starting that far down in the grades. That’s a wonderful thing.”
“Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything,” she continued. “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”
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On Friday, April 11, the condiment company responded on Instagram with an image of a sauce bottle altered to say “For education purposes only.”
“Agree, best to start them early,” reads text over the image, while the accompanying caption reads, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.”
A representative for the brand told PEOPLE, “While ‘A.1.’ becoming the unexpected star of a panel on the future of education certainly wasn’t on our 2025 bingo card, when the moment was served up like a juicy steak, how could we not bite on it? We’re thrilled at the positive reception to our response as it underscores the team’s agility and the strong collaboration with our partners”
The funny post from A.1., which is a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz, prompted numerous cheeky comments.
“My husband wants a bottle for his desk. He teaches middle school, at least until they replace him with A.1.,” read one reply.
“If we didn’t use A1 already, we’d start immediately. This is excellent. Chef’s kiss. No notes,” someone else wrote, while another agreed, “I’m literally going to buy a bottle because of this post. Bravo!”
And one clever commenter observed, “When it comes to education, there’s so much at ‘steak.’”
