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IBM's #HackAHairDryer initiative blasted by women in tech

Big Blue ends up red in the face with patronising diversity campaign

IBM encounters ire of female engineers and tech experts over dumb women in STEM campaign
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Sneak understands that sometimes even the most worthy of intentions can backfire wildly. During a visit to Russia he once tried to help an elderly war veteran cross a road only to trip over and result in his momentum carrying the pensioner careering straight into the path of an oncoming tank parade.

Then there was the time he gave £20 to a homeless chap, who then rather than spend that on a hearty meal of chicken and chips at the shop round the corner, instead invested it in a few shares of a tiny company called Apple.

That man now spends his days in a lavish Los Angeles flat, while Sneak settles down for a bowl of super noodles for the ninth night in a row. He's probably laughing right now.

But even with a litany of misplaced goodwill, Sneak hasn't failed as spectacularly as IBM's latest marketing campaign gaff.

The #HackAHairDryer campaign (as seen in the tweet below), which aimed at getting more women into the male-heavy technology industry, has been roundly lambasted by women for being patronising and casually misogynistic.

Many female engineers and technologists took to Twitter to voice their disproval at the campaign that, rather than ask female techies to hack a server or get involved in coding, instead suggests hacking a rather clichéd beauty implement.

While Sneak snorted in mirth at some of the responses that showed good humour can overcome dumb and patronising campaigns, he can't help but muse as to why so many campaigns to encourage women to get into STEM industries are so blatantly off target when there are solid examples of women working on very tech-heavy projects.

Take Margret Hamilton, for example, who was the lead software engineer of the Apollo Project; Sneak reckons she didn't worry about hacking beauty implements given she was tasked with helping humanity make it to the moon.

In a statement sent to Sneak, IBM did admit its campaign was a misfire and humbly said sorry: "The videos were part of a larger campaign to promote STEM careers. It missed the mark for some and we apologise. It is being discontinued."

Perhaps IBM would have been better to have taken Intel's approach and earmark a hefty $300m to promote diversity.

Sneak also wonders who came up with the campaign idea; was it a load of out-of-touch men in ill-fitting suits and corduroy trousers trying to meet a diversity quota while making inappropriate japes about their secretaries? Or was it a female-led team of bright-eyed marketers who want to mix their own experiences with IBM's worthy goal?

Perhaps this will remain one of life's mysteries, such as where did Sneak's Elon Musk SpaceX socks go, why do dogs chase cats, and why does ‘orange' sound like ‘gullible' when you say it out loud?

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