OnePlus Asks Women to Participate in Degrading Online Contest To Get a Smartphone


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I have to wonder if OnePlus is an American based company, because how did they not know this is wrong.

[ url = article posted on Verge ]

And, apparently it is a start-up company. (I hope this wasn't a thought out plan
to get free advertising, and increase their sales figures.)

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Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

*shrug* There's no law against being an idiot. Well the laws of economics, but we'll see how they do in that court.


Hahaha.

Oh boy, that's dumb. And sexist on so many levels. Like sexismception!


Aside from bizarrely and inexplicably being set up so that only females are allowed to enter, I'm not seeing any of the other contest rules as being particularly misogynistic -- in contrast to the slimy way they're being announced ("true gentlemanly fashion" indeed).

It's worth noting that "likes" can be based on anything -- creative use of logo; creative photography; whatever. Reading the rules other than the "ladies only" one, I get no impression that they enforce this as a beauty pageant or anything of the sort.

But it seems to me that by saying "Look! Chivalty! Ladies only! Herp derp!" the person writing the ad is more or less torpedoing what the contest is intended to do.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Honestly this "sexist" thing is nonsense in this case (in my opinion). Except to imply that it is sexist that guys don't also have the opportunity to enter the contest.

What I believe is the problem here, is that the author of the article thinks this is all about having the most attractive girls have a shot at buying the new phone. (Which would be sexy-ist thing, not a sexist thing.) But it isn't really about the sexy-girl-gets-the-phone: yes an attractive girl has better odds all other things being equal - but really, this is an opportunity to skew odds in your favor in a myriad of ways. The photo can be clever, funny, the location can be exotic, or weird, or dangerous, the logo design can be creative, original, artistic, or done with plants, there's any number of ways in which a positive and healthy representation can be made.

Instead of seeing opportunity there are complaints.

Anybody that thinks they will develop self-esteem issues because they didn't get votes on a contest to be eligible to get a phone... well... perhaps re-evaluating their priorities in life may be a step forward. But it's all part of the system! The patriarchy! It's all just one more example! Well, rubbish. The patriarchy is defeated in all ways that matter; mopping up the extras is just a matter of time as the old guard dies out. What is left, what is the root of problems for everybody, is an egotistical kleingeist. A self-centered, self-serving me-me-me society. Everything should be easy. Everything should be free.

Guys. Girls. Get over yourselves. We should serve to make the world a better place. Not to make the world a better place for us.


Yeah, nothing sexist about it at all. Let some girls cut the line if the guys (and apparently it's almost all guys) like them enough.
Maybe that's by being sexy. Maybe there are other ways of getting the guys to like you.
Still sexist.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

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I'm leaning towards "Successfully Implemented Publicity Stunt" at this point.

Hurray for Capitalism !!

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thejeff wrote:
Yeah, nothing sexist about it at all. Let some girls cut the line if the guys (and apparently it's almost all guys) like them enough. Maybe that's by being sexy. Maybe there are other ways of getting the guys to like you. Still sexist.

If they'd taken a saner approach and removed the gender restriction on entering, would your opinion still be the same? That bizarre restriction, and the excruciatingly cringe-worthy wording of the article, are the two things that gave me pause. Imagine this:

"Take a photo of yourself and our logo and win a free T-shirt and phone! Whatever photo gets the most 'like' votes will win. All entries must be suitable for viewing by minors."

Now all of the sudden it seems a lot more innocuous. I'm at a loss why it wasn't presented this way in the first place.


Kirth Gersen wrote:
thejeff wrote:
Yeah, nothing sexist about it at all. Let some girls cut the line if the guys (and apparently it's almost all guys) like them enough. Maybe that's by being sexy. Maybe there are other ways of getting the guys to like you. Still sexist.

If they'd taken a saner approach and removed the gender restriction on entering, would your opinion still be the same? That bizarre restriction, and the excruciatingly cringe-worthy wording of the article, are the two things that gave me pause. Imagine this:

"Take a photo of yourself and our logo and win a free T-shirt and phone! Whatever photo gets the most 'like' votes will win. All entries must be suitable for viewing by minors."

Now all of the sudden it seems a lot more innocuous. I'm at a loss why it wasn't presented this way in the first place.

Depends as much on the promotion as on the strict rules.

If the promotion is all about the girls and then the fine print says "Guys can enter too", then no.

But yes, if they have a stupid contest and remove the sexist rules and the sexist promotion, then it's not sexist any more.

OTOH, depending on the userbase, it might still turn out that way. Which would only partly be on the company.

Shadow Lodge

After an admittedly quick skim of the actual thread, it seemed the picture with the most likes was actually a mother and her baby. So despite all the white knighting, it seems that the actual contest isn't as much determined my sex appeal.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'd like to enter, but I'm too busy collecting petition signatures to end the horrible plight of women's suffrage.


thejeff wrote:
But yes, if they have a stupid contest and remove the sexist rule and the sexist promotion, then it's not sexist any more.

I think that's what I'm trying to express. It's not fundamentally a sexist contest, as apparently even the voters recognized, based on Kthulhu's post. It's more like a perfectly innocuous contest, but then some pinhead in the Marketing department added a sexist rule to it, and then the promotional writer turned out to be a toad-like neckbeard. It still seems like there's a lot that could be salvaged, if you eliminate just those two things. Kind of like you don't have to immediately throw away onions with brown spots; you can just cut them out and the rest is still usable.

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Don't get me wrong, there were some pictures there that showed quite a bit of skin.

* right-click, save *

But most of those got more responses accusing them of being photoshop jobs than anything else.

As an aside, I have to wonder how many of the people who have expressed outrage actually went to the actual forum topic. I'd wager most of them just read the article criticizing it, donned their shinning white armor, and began defending the women who posted their pictures.

Hell, give me a free smartphone, I'll send out a scantily-clad picture of myself. Although it might work better for me if I threaten to send the photo UNLESS I am given a free smartphone.


Kirth Gersen wrote:
thejeff wrote:
But yes, if they have a stupid contest and remove the sexist rule and the sexist promotion, then it's not sexist any more.
I think that's what I'm trying to express. It's not fundamentally a sexist contest, as apparently even the voters recognized, based on Kthulhu's post. It's more like a perfectly innocuous contest, but then some pinhead in the Marketing department added a sexist rule to it, and then the promotional writer turned out to be a toad-like neckbeard. It still seems like there's a lot that could be salvaged, if you eliminate just those two things. Kind of like you don't have to immediately throw away onions with brown spots; you can just cut them out and the rest is still usable.

From a marketing standpoint, you want people to forget as quickly as possible that the onion with brown spots ever existed, that way no one thinks about the brown spots.


Kthulhu wrote:
Hell, give me a free smartphone, I'll send out a scantily-clad picture of myself.

Not a free smartphone, just the opportunity to buy a normally-priced smartphone when you otherwise could not.

Kthulhu wrote:
Although it might work better for me if I threaten to send the photo UNLESS I am given a free smartphone.

I geddit because kthulhu

The Exchange

Definitely sexist. it is women only

Shadow Lodge

DualJay wrote:
Kthulhu wrote:
Although it might work better for me if I threaten to send the photo UNLESS I am given a free smartphone.
I geddit because kthulhu

Oh, yeah, that works out too.


Andrew R wrote:
Definitely sexist. it is women only

You're right... it is sexist and I sincerely apologize. We should all be in this together.

{scribbles at top of petition form} There! Now we can end the horrible plight of everyone's suffrage.

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