Science Girl Ad: If You Want to Be Smart, You’d Better Work It

Here’s a tip, science girl ad masterminds: If you want to attract more women to the field, the last thing you probably want to do is play into gender-based stereotypes. Unless you’re hopelessly single and/or a total misogynist, chances are you’re aware of the fact that girls hate being talked down to, particularly when it comes to topics such as careers and education. With this in mind, is really so surprising that the advertisement you see embedded below has caused quite a bit of controversy? I’m actually surprised this one made it out of the gate at all.

The “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” campaign, created by the folks at the European Commission, was supposed to help get girls interested in science. Instead, it insulted the gender as a whole by issuing this peculiar little video featuring three attractive females strutting around a laboratory/runway while doing vaguely scientific things. I get what they’re attempting to accomplish with the clip — make-up and skin care products and what-not have their roots in science, after all — but they’ve failed miserably in the execution.

The backlash has been so considerable that the video has been removed from the campaign. Rightfully so. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way, either. Below you’ll find some Twitter reactions to the video, which are understandably negative. Once you’ve seen the clip, there’s a very strong chance you’ll feel the same way.