"Science: It's a girl thing!"

[PoliticAverse]

The European Commission wants to get more women into science-related fields and has started a campaign
titled "Science: It's a girl thing!" ( campaign website: http://science-girl-thing.eu/ ).

This is the 'teaser video' for the campaign:

&feature=player_embedded

[NJCher]

1. hmmm

Not so sure what I think of this. Why are most of the women sexy? What's with the stilletto? Why couldn't they just feature regular women instead of women prancing around like no woman with any brains would ever do?


Cher

[elleng]

2. GIRLS, not yet women.

[PoliticAverse]

3. It seems to be attracting many negative reactions:

Twitter comments: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23sciencegirlthing

Comments from a Scientific American blogger: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2012/06/22/science-its-a-girl-thing-insert-facepalm-here/

[Voice for Peace]

4. oh good.. that was my exact response

heels and prancing and lipstick and nailpolish not necessary,
smart scientific women are sexy enough just sitting
on a stool looking tired in a lab coat

[PoliticAverse]

6. I think the ad-agency may have mixed it up with the "Modeling: It's a girl thing" campaign. n/t

[exboyfil]

5. You have got to be kidding me

My aspiring doctor (a 9th grade girl) is disgusted by this ad as am I. I have not shown it to my aspiring engineer (an 11th grade girl). I am at a loss for words. A quote from my daughter, "This encourages me to go into science... how...?"

My older daughter is in a college chemistry class, and she has three male lab partners. In spite of her trying to tell them how to do the lab properly, they made a real mess of the lab (trying to add water to a crucible, touching a hot crucible and spilling the contents when it burned his hand, not listening when my daughter told them to get extra data points). It is amazing that a 16 year old is more mature than 20 year olds. She had this garbage in her High School Chemistry class this year, and she thought college chemistry would be different. I think her conclusion about the only problem with women in science is the men who don't listen to them.

[JI7]

8. i guess the message here is that she should try to be more sexy for the guys

ughhhhhhhhh

[exboyfil]

9. The funny thing is that the smart guys

who are somewhat geeky are actually turned on by the smart girls. I know it was that way for me in High School.

[JI7]

10. that has been my experience also

this ad or whatever it is will not appeal to those who are really into the subject. whether they are male or female .

[JI7]

7. fucking disgusting

[Scootaloo]

11. Are you fucking kidding me?

"Science" is a fashion show conducted in heels that would make a stripper go "Hah, yeah right?" What... what the fuck was that? I really have no words to describe that, except to note that i'nm certain (god, I hope I'm certain) that no actual scientists were involved in the making of this, because it's belittling to the entire field of study if every fucking thing! in addition to just being dumb and sexist. It's not as if one head-slappingly dumb thing was enough, oh no, they had to double the fun! So we get meg Ryan-style Hot Scientist ladies, prancing around bubbly beakers of dry ice, to shitty House music.

AGAIN,

[stockholmer]

17. I guess we can next expect a Legally Blonde-themed advert-- 'Lawyers in Louboutins'

[PoliticAverse]

12. Their youtube channel with other videos (with actual scientists)...

http://www.youtube.com/user/sciencegirlthing/feed

[stlsaxman]

21. THANK YOU for showing the YouTube site... i'd like to think the OP vid is a farce!

Last edited Sat Jun 23, 2012, 08:23 PM - Edit history (1)

It's an EU spoof on America's Barbie fetish... "Science Barbie" or some such shit.

btw- they have taken it off their YT page- too controversial?

here's the real thing- try to find THIS in America!

there are literally dozens of videos like this over there.

check it.

[redgreenandblue]

13. Is this a joke?

"Get more women into science by promoting the idea that science is similar to fashion"

Really?

[Scootaloo]

14. Well, both DO involve bipedal mammals to some degree

Easy mistake, I guess.

[TalkingDog]

15. I will however say bravo to a lot of the comments

Both for being funny as hell and for the men who found it just as insulting, including the scientists among them.

Wait til the trolls show up.

[stockholmer]

16. Yet another reason to despise the Brussels brigade of EU plutocrats

At least Sweden isn't in the Eurozone.

[stockholmer]

18. btw, the ad agency that brought you this debacle is Tipik, from Brussels (of course)

http://www.tipik.eu/

Feel free to send them a comment.

Methinks that Juan Arcas, the Managing Director, and his creative team are out in a bar tonight getting very drunk.

[PoliticAverse]

19. According to Tipik's twitter feed the teaser was produced by Emakina

https://twitter.com/#!/tipik

Tipik ?@tipik

Our professional ethics do not allow us to take a stand on the debate. For your information, the campaign teaser was produced by @Emakina

http://www.emakina.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/Emakina

[stockholmer]

20. they outsourced it, lol, but still they defo took some payment as the coordinating agency

The Emakina staff is probably buying the good folks at Tipik the first 5 rounds.

[Occulus]

23. Then there's this, from Tipik's own site:

Tipik is delighted to announce the launch of ‘Women in Research and Innovation’, a new campaign of DG Research and Innovation, on 21 June in the European Parliament. Tipik is responsible for promotion, media relations, online presence and the organisation of activities for this campaign. The first phase of the campaign will run under the slogan ‘Science: It’s a girl thing’ for the next six months.

http://www.tipik.eu/news/258/tipik-shows-that-science-really-is-a-girl-thing

BTW, Tipik: I already captured a screenshot of the page, so don't bother taking it down!

[Occulus]

22. Hey, stockholmer, Tipik alerted on your post! Don't you feel special?

At Fri Jul 6, 2012, 11:01 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

btw, the ad agency that brought you this debacle is Tipik, from Brussels (of course)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=36478

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

ALERTER'S COMMENTS:

I would like to inform you that one of your member stockholmer recently posted a comment (see below) which is both incorrect and libelous:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=36478

1. Tipik did not produced the teaser in question and did not commissioned Emakina. The Commission dealt directly with Emakina for this teaser.
2. Your member calls people to “spam” us with comments.
3. Your member made inappropriate remarks about Tipik’s Managing Director and its creative team.

This is totally unacceptable.

That’s why we ask you to delete these two posts by “stockholmer” and – as we suppose he/she won’t apologise – to publish an erratum in reply to this discussion (in the name of the “democraticunderground.com” webteam).

Please keep me informed.


You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Fri Jul 6, 2012, 11:15 AM, and the Jury voted 0-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Why was this even alerted on?

This is a colossally useless alert.

if you can't stand the heat...blah blah blah.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: If the alerter has something to say regarding the topic, say it in the thread, produce something to back up what they are saying, and then ask for a correction. If there are errors, point them out and prove them to be errors. That is a far better way to deal with such a situation. As a juror, this alert tells me nothing, it doesn't refute anything. So hiding one comment will not resolve the issue the alerter claims to be concerned about.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Message to Tipik's legal team: http://www.tipik.eu/news/258/tipik-shows-that-science-really-is-a-girl-thing

I think that says it all, doesn't it? Oh, by the way, go look up Righthaven and how we dealt with them. Then go tell your legal team that we are not to be fucked with.

I was Juror #6. I really hope they take my suggestion to heart

[PoliticAverse]

24. So Tipik's claim is that they weren't involved in the teaser's production at all...

1. Tipik did not produced the teaser in question and did not commissioned Emakina. The Commission dealt directly with Emakina for this teaser.

[Occulus]

25. 'Zactly. So why is it on their own company's webpage?

*sniffsniff* I smell damage control.

edit: from that same page:

Tipik is responsible for promotion, media relations, online presence and the organisation of activities for this campaign.

[stockholmer]

27. I stand behind my post, thanks for the support, here's a WHOIS on the Science Its A Girl Thing site

In addition, your post from Tipik's own website is further proof. The bottom line is that both Emakina and Tipik took money, credit, and now one of them is trying to claim they have nothing to do with it.

----------------------------------------


http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/06/harsh-reviews-for-european-commi.html

The online reaction to the video has been overwhelmingly negative. It had 98 likes and 2755 dislikes on YouTube as of 5 p.m., EDT on 22 June. And the backlash on Twitter was severe; a seemingly endless string of posts tagged #sciencegirlthing indict the video, calling it "tacky and demeaning," a "travesty," and " painful patronizing cliche." The hash tag #realwomenofscience has surged in popularity as a response.

Those responsible for the campaign have also turned to Twitter to defend it. Tipik, the agency in charge of the "Science: It's a Girl Thing" campaign, was quick to deflect the blame to the company it says made the video, and stated in a tweet: "Our professional ethics do not allow us to take a stand on the debate." EC spokesperson Jennings tweeted that the video was not central to the main campaign, but just "45 seconds of fun for launch to grab attention."


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http://www.gregorcollienne.com/?page=news&PHPSESSID=ca1c6949c6a98eb1b33e62bf9f1ad9a7

We recently produced two pictures for the Brussels based communication agency TIPIK.

The campaign is initiated from the European Commission and the target is to wake young girls interest in scientific studies.


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http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/girls-just-want-to-have-funding-/74741.aspx

Cheryl Miller, of Greenlight for Girls, a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation, who advised the campaign, knew nothing about the video until she was at the launch on Thursday. “I was mortified,” she said. “How did this manage to get through the approval process? The girls in the video are portrayed in a manner that I find extremely unacceptable.”

The Commission says it is trying to challenge the stereotype of science as something boring for old men in white coats. So now it's something titillating for old men in white coats?


The original version of this article mistakenly identified communications agency Tipik as the producer of a promotional video for the ‘Science: it's a girl thing” campaign. The video was produced by another communications agency, Emakina, directly for the European Commission. Tipik, which is responsible for the overall promotion of the campaign, said it was not involved in the conception, production or validation of the video.


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I have inside knowledge of the creative industry, and trust me, if I was a creative director tasked with the overall production of a campaign, you can damn well be rest assured that my arse would be on the line for any outsourced, 3rd-party production work that was branded under the rubric of that initiative.

[DCKit]

29. That's the difference between us and them.

As a man, I'm not at all threatened by thinking women might be better or smarter than me. Really, they're disgusting. And I'm not just saying that to meet chicks. The boyfriend would frown upon that.

[Kablooie]

26. I don't want to be a scientist but it sure makes me want to be a girl!

[DCKit]

28. I knew there was a reason. Respect, bitches! nt