IBM apologises for 'hack a hairdryer' campaign

Patronising and even dangerous: Twittersphere speaks out over Big Blue's latest campaign to promote STEM

IBM moved quickly to kill its "hack a hairdryer" campaign today following criticism that it was sexist, patronising and even – according to one tweet from the London Fire Brigade – potentially dangerous.

Despite having been launched on YouTube in October, the video, whose goal was to "re-engineer misperceptions about women in tech" went viral on social media today for all the wrong reasons after IBM repromoted it on Friday.

Following a storm of negative comments, including from female scientists, IBM today took the down the video, which invited women working in the field to "hack a hairdryer" before sharing their findings on its website.

"This was part of a larger campaign to promote STEM careers. It missed the mark and we apologise. It is being discontinued," IBM tweeted.

Even the London Fire Brigade chipped in, saying it harboured safety concerns over the concept.

Among the other widely retweeted responses on Twitter included the following from Alice Goldfuss....

...and this tweet from Jessica V

Women made up 14.4 per cent of all people working in STEM occupations as of August 2015, according to Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). For IT professionals specifically, the figure stood at 17.5 per cent.