Ladies, how would you feel if a company asked you to photograph yourself with its logo on a piece of paper? Perfectly fine, likely. But what if that company also offered an option to do the same, but the logo had to be on some part of your body? Yeah, not great. Though, if you were the most well-liked, you would get the opportunity to purchase a device! Just the opportunity! That is exactly what OnePlus asked women to do earlier today when it launched the Ladies First contest.
The content would reward the top fifty most well-liked women with a company shirt. Then, OnePlus would give a single invite to purchase the OnePlus One to the woman that had the favorite photograph. So the winner of the contest doesn't even get a OnePlus One. They get an invite to purchase the OnePlus One.
This obviously did not sit well with many people due to what it asked of women. In addition to that, users on the contest's thread were posting photographs of women donning the OnePlus logo, many of which were a little racy. News of the contest made its way around the world and the link for the contest's announcement thread is now dead. The Ladies First contest is gone and the company still has yet to remove the tweet announcing the content.
Cyanogen, the company behind the OnePlus One's software, issued the following on Twitter:
We value all of our users and do not support any contest that objectifies people
— Cyanogen Inc. (@CyanogenInc) August 12, 2014
OnePlus has yet to comment on the matter.
Source: OnePlus, Cyanogen (Twitter)
Shitty marketing team.
Brought to you by the same company that asked people to smash one of their flagship phones to get the opportunity to purchase one with yellow screen, touch issues and who knows what else. LOSERS!
mad?, i’ve one without those bugs ;)
It was “sexist” because it excluded men, right?
I used to be excited about this device…. now I am embarrassed ever having considered it. I think the lemon yellow color on the display is fitting…. a lemon.