Some of you may have heard of the European Commission’s recent blunder, which involved a public service announcement in the form of a slick video called “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!”  Although the intent was good (attracting more girls to consider science as a career), the implementation was awful.  The EC actually has a good YouTube channel with other videos showing real female scientists….doing science or talking about their experiences as scientists.

In this case, however, I’m guessing that they hired professionals who were more experienced in doing cosmetics commercials and really did not understand the EC’s campaign.  The video was a cross between a high fashion or cosmetics commercial (high heels, designer sunglasses, lipstick, and face powder) and a trailer for a TV show like Sex and the City.  The video was chock full of stereotypical images and seemed to send the message that women in science can still be beautiful, sexy fashionistas who love to be ogled by male scientists (it doesn’t indicate where that leaves us more ordinary-looking females).  There were no women in the video being shown actually doing science or talking about all the interesting reasons why one would want to choose science as a career.

The outcry from scientists and women resounded across the internet, and the EC pulled the video from YouTube within days of the video’s release.  Fortunately, some quick viewers had already downloaded the video and reposted it on YouTube.  You can take a look here:

My objective in showing this video is not to critique it, but to use it as a lead-in to the other videos that were made in reaction to this one by the EC.  Several enterprising and creative women produced a few interesting video responses that captured the overall outrage felt by many viewers.

Here is a sampling of my favorites:

This sampling shows a nice variety of approaches to rebutting the EC video and the stereotypes displayed therein.  The first one used an interview format in which a female scientist is asked for her opinion about the EC video.  The second one used an animation approach quite effectively to make its points.  In the third one, the creator used humor and sarcasm, which was delivered like a stand-up routine.  A fourth example was shot like a news media interview, with the reporter talking to a variety of women (and one man who clearly didn’t “get it”) about their reactions to the EC video.  The last example was fashioned after a music video and featured a group of female marine scientists on a research cruise.

Although none of these examples is as slick as the EC video, they are much more effective in getting across their message in a passionate, entertaining, or informative manner.