Girly science ad gets European Commission grief + Video

Girly science ad gets European Commission grief [Video]

The European Commission is obtaining grief over a flashy ad meant to induce ladies excited concerning science that appears a lot of sort of a lipstick business. The teaser video, "Science: It’s a woman thing!" is pegged to a eu Commission campaign to bring a lot of girls into the sector, that skews heavily toward men.

But for several galled viewers, the feminist goal was drowned out by the stereotypically girly pictures of ladies guffawing and strutting in skirts, jumbled in with effervescent flasks.

The perky video bounces between shots of nail polish and petri dishes, sunglasses and goggles over a techno beat; it even swaps out the "i" in "science" with a tube of lipstick. Appalled scientists said the video was a sexist little bit of advertising primarily based on the thought that solely fashion might get ladies inquisitive about take a look at tubes.

"It's as if Disney channel male execs do ‘science Barbie,'" geologist and blogger Sharon Hill tweeted in disgust. "Terrible."

Ben Goldacre, author of the Guardian's "Bad Science" column, joked, "The EU have funded a campaign to create girls in science wear shorter skirts."

Could the ad be "a fiendish ploy to focus on the stereotyping of ladies and scientists?" University of Bristol climate scientist Tamsin Edwards quizzed the campaign through Twitter.

The "Commission does not extremely do irony," European Commission spokesman for science Michael Jennings replied. "Hope was to induce youth onto website. That looks to be happening!"

Quite. Though the outpouring of attention might have brought a lot of attention to the campaign, the girly video caused such an outcry that the eu Commission eventually pulled it from YouTube -- solely to search out that web users had already copied it elsewhere.

"An epic fail, and waste of public cash," one YouTube viewer commented. "Pity, really."


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/girly-science-ad-gets-european-commission-grief-video.html