Real-women ads are totally en vogue. From Under Armour to Dove, companies are increasingly featuring athletes, businesswomen, and other real women, instead of Photoshopped models, in their advertisements.
Now, the latest set of real-woman ads, this time for underwear company Dear Kate’s Ada collection—which is named after the world’s first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace—is really stirring up controversy.
But it’s not for promoting girl power: Critics say that the ads, which feature images of female founders and CEOs of tech companies clicking away on laptops and tablets while wearing only bras and underwear, perpetuate sexism in Silicon Valley.
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Dear Kate’s founder, Julie Sygiel, told Fortune that the ad is intended to do the opposite: to empower women in tech.
“We started last November featuring women in our campaigns who we admire because of who they are and what they do, not because of what they look like. I like to look at our [campaigns] as a platform to showcase women we admire…The thought behind the campaign was to bring attention to the fact that there are women in tech and they are killing it. We wanted to highlight the fact that they are there because, to some degree, the media doesn’t often feature women in tech.â€
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She was apparently pretty shocked to find out the ads were being critiqued by some as sexist. “It says something about our society, and it’s sad in some ways because posing in your underwear doesn’t say anything about your capability or intelligence,†she told Fortune. “You should be able to wear whatever you want without people making assumptions about what’s going on inside.â€
So what do you think: Are the photos empowering or demeaning? your thoughts in the comments!
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