Dive Brief:
- IBM discontinued its #HackAHairDryer campaign yesterday after complaints of sexism.
- Tech companies have been working to improve diversity in tech, but IBM’s latest campaign instead was considered "insulting" by many women in the industry.
- IBM removed a Web page and several YouTube videos of hair dryer innovations it had posted in support of the campaign.
Dive Insight:
“It’s time to blast away the barriers that women confront on a daily basis,” IBM said when it launched #HackAHairDryer in October, calling the campaign “an experiment in reengineering what matters in science.”
The campaign was designed to interest women in science, but it failed to appeal to women, who said they found the campaign insulting.
“It missed the mark for some and we apologize,” IBM said in a statement. “It is being discontinued.”
Tech companies have been working hard to improve diversity in the workplace, which is dominated by men and where minorities are generally underrepresented. Though the hair dryer campaign failed, IBM has a longstanding program to promote engineering education, as well as several other initiatives designed to help support workforce diversity.
