"Science: It's a Girl Thing" Says Controversial Ad

[LordFish]

My last company had a science lab, where they invented stuff, and like, smoke and funny smells, it was as awesome as it sounds!

Anyway, Yeh, we had 4 girls and 2 guys working there, so... Go them! (one of them was very pwetty)

 

[bloodydom666]

what was that?
wtf
dam!!!!! adds

 

[chadachada123]

First off: Why the hell does it matter that girls in general aren't as interested in science as boys? As long as girls that ARE interested and able to pursue science are not held back from it socially or legally, then there's no issue if girls just aren't into it as much.

Secondly: This ad is ridiculous and sexist as hell.

 

[deathninja]

And here I was thinking the £0 vs. £27,000 tuition fee was the incentive...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

If this director had made a sports "themed" ad, trust me, that "I" would have been a baseball bat.

Well, that's kind of the problem. Baseball bats are completely contained within a sport, so you can use one as a synecdoche quite safely. Doing the same for makeup and women has Unfortunate Implications. A better analogy would be if they made a commercial aimed exclusively at men and used a blood-soaked sword (dripping blood too, of course) for the 'i' - because all men clearly enjoy violence and blood and stabby things.

Yeah, and that blood-soaked or weapon-shaped lettering happens all of the time (and is just as uninspired). I simply refuse to give the filmmaker of this spot enough credit to earnestly believe that he or she was trying to make "a statement". This is much more of a "you want us to make a video about girls and science? Okay, well girls sometimes wear makeup, and scientists sometimes write equations. Let's make an ad with makeup and equations!"

The problem is that when you deal with dull marketing producers, everything that comes out of them will be directly associative. This video was the composition of five people Family-Feuding what things people commonly associate with women. Whether or not makeup should be a go-to item for the thought of women is a different matter.

This ad could have been much better, but a lack of creativity, not sexism, is the perpetrator.

If they were making an add encouraging men to do science. The ad would have been about doing science and the I would have been a test tube.

Crazy! I know right?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I watch Mythbusters frequently and I can tell you science it is NOT a "girl's thing".

It's a special effects thing. With equations. And logistics. And duct tape. And sulfur hexaflouride. And sometimes explosions. BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG explosions. That vaporize cement trucks.

Sometimes girls are involved, and that's always a good thing. Equality - I'm all in favor of that.

Ad is stupid...but, really...what do you expect nowadays? Give it the notoriety it deserves and move on!

Now, I'm going to be distracted by Moonlight Butterfly's avatar for awhile. It does science.

Captcha: smell that. Smells like......science!

 

[Eric Morales]

The road to Hades is paved with good intentions...

 

[ResonanceSD]

So, this may just me, but when I see this ad, I see a team of B-minus marketers trying to make science sexy, not women. Yes, the women enter with what's a "sexy stride," but when the lights come on, we're greeted with three conservatively-dressed women who begin performing experiments, not seduction. We don't see them cheekily butt-bump the guy out of his seat, and we don't see the man react with a "oh ma gosh, that there's women doing science things!" expression. If this video is guilty of anything, it's that sort of cheese-ball 90s marketing where any relevant topic must somehow directly come through in the copy, such as the lipstick as the "I". If this director had made a sports "themed" ad, trust me, that "I" would have been a baseball bat.

I work in marketing, this is the worst ad I've seen. This week. However it's only Monday, so that might well change. It draws attention to the women being hot, rather than the fact that science is interesting, and completely detracts from the fact that science is a professional career.

You show me a scientist who actually dresses like that at the office and I'll show you a cosplayer who decided to go for "sexy GLADoS" instead.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Anyone else sick of hearing about women lately?

 

[michael87cn]

*watches the commercial*

*snorts into his drink at "Science! It's a girl thing!"*

*sits back and thinks of witty things to type*

That poor guy! They portrayed him so stereotypically

He looked like Bill Nye the Science Guy!

Science! It's a learning thing!

Hehe.

Why did I type in this format?

Oh well.

 

[Conn1496]

Seems like a good idea on paper, but so does "triple backflip on a pedal tricycle off a cliff through a ring of fire.".

 

[hooksashands]

Yet another textbook example of Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

[The Ubermensch]

On the one hand it's oh so wrong

On the other... has marketing ever been right?

 

[kitsuta]

This ad could have been much better, but a lack of creativity, not sexism, is the perpetrator.

Yeah, laziness and incompetence are usually the driving force behind offensive marketing. Very few people wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "Today, I'm going to stereotype an entire gender/race/creed in my ad copy! It'll be great!"

But since the ad is endorsed (made?) by a group actively trying to get more women interested in science, someone really should have been paying more attention to how it portrays/treats women. The context of the ad, where it is purportedly trying to address a gender issue, makes it a lot more subject to feminist critique than, say, a random Avon or Clairol ad.

We basically agree, though. I don't think this was done with the intent of sending any sort of negative message. It's counter-productive to go around claiming this or that marketing producer/game developer/whatever is sexist, especially when you could be critically examining the messages themselves.

Snip

Well said. And that is a surprisingly specific alternative ad.

 

[Tanis]

If this video is guilty of anything, it's that sort of cheese-ball 90s marketing where any relevant topic must somehow directly come through in the copy, such as the lipstick as the "I". If this director had made a sports "themed" ad, trust me, that "I" would have been a baseball bat.

I was thinking the same thing.

Hell, I was waiting for SOMEONE to yell 'Science, it's X-STREAM, sista!'

 

[Black Arrow Officer]

I really don't see the point of this ad. If a girl wants to study science, she'll study science. It's as simple as that. You don't need a bunch of random women dancing around to lousy electronic music with makeup and lipstick everywhere. Besides, from what I've seen during my time in college there were just as many girls as there were boys in the science classes.

 

[KapnKerfuffle]

Aren't women graduating in greater numbers than men already in all subjects anyway? I think we need a "hey guys, put the beer funnel down and go read a book. The ladies are doing it." ad for men.

 

[Hat Man]

Science is not a girl thing.

Science is impartial to gender, race and social position.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

*applauds* In the waning weeks of a rather disappointing E3 and the rise of zombies via bath salts, it's nice to see someone's taking initiative and trying to bring new levels of stupid to keep it fresh.

So, with that said, Go Team Retard!

 

[mysecondlife]

I swear this is how strippers are made.