"Look like a girl" "Think like a man" #Bic fails spectacularly with this #happywomensday ad. pic.twitter.com/G9avXp4MoV
\u201c"Look like a girl" "Think like a man" #Bic fails spectacularly with this #happywomensday ad.\u201d— Rebecca LeBard (@Rebecca LeBard) 1439344227
To celebrate Women's Day in South Africa, office supply giant BIc decided it would be a good idea to design an advert featuring a woman in a business suit. So far, so good. Less impressive was the slogan attached. "Look like a girl," Bic implored us. "Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a boss." Oh dear gods.
\u201c.@bic_SA my boss is a woman, but she doesn't think like a man, or dress like a girl. Should I confiscate all her pens?\u201d— Jeanine Cameron (@Jeanine Cameron) 1439284070
In a Facebook post apologizing for the advert, which has since been deleted, Bic said: “We can assure you that we meant it in the most empowering way possible and in no way derogatory towards women. We took the quote from a ‘Women in Business’ blog site. The blog site explains the quote and what its intentions were when it was written. Bic believe in celebrating women and the powerful contribution women make to our society.”
This isn't the first time Bic has come under fire for misogynistic marketing. In 2012 the company decided that women needed a special range of pink and purple "For Her" pens. The negative Amazon reviews came tumbling in. "I bought this pen (in error, evidently) to write my reports of each day's tree felling activities in my job as a lumberjack," writes DaveyClayton. "It is no good. It slips from between my calloused, gnarly fingers like a gossamer thread gently descending to earth between two giant redwood trunks." Ellen DeGeneres even waded into the debate with a spoof advert. But they just didn't get the message, clearly.
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