A few days after South Africa’s Women’s Day, pen manufacturer Bic is still apologizing for a controversial advertisement they put out to “celebrate” women.
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On Sunday, Bic put out the ad (pictured) that read:
Look like a girl
Act like a lady
Think like a man
Work like a boss
Immediately, critics, including South African journalist and writer Gugulethu Mhlungu, British women’s rights activist Caroline Criado-Perez, and British MP David Lammy, took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction:
But the ire didn’t stop there. Creating the hashtag #BicFail, other critics tweeted:
Seriously, WHO is in charge of ads at #BIC?? Piece of advice, telling women to ‘think like a man’ is NOT empowering ! #BICfail
— Ebba Lekvall (@EbbaLekvall) August 13, 2015
The heads at Bic couldn’t do better than this? C’mon Dic heads…oops, Bic heads?!? #BicFail #NoMoreBics pic.twitter.com/K4BCuZeQGj
— Mimi (@LaughAsNeeded) August 13, 2015
People, this is the same company that thought women needed special pens #BicFail http://t.co/xYuGmpHx2C — Christian Cho (@christiancho) August 12, 2015
Not suprisingly, Bic responded by deleting the advertisement and releasing the following message on their Facebook page:
Hi everyone. Let’s start out by saying we’re incredibly sorry for offending everybody – that was never our intention, but we completely understand where we’ve gone wrong. This post should never have gone out. The feedback you have given us will help us ensure that something like this will never happen again, and we appreciate that.
Still, by Wednesday, pen and marker competitor Stabilo mocked Bic with an ad of their own:
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