#HackAHairdryer isn’t all hot air | Arwa Mahdawi

It may have been ill-conceived, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that IBM's 'hack a hairdryer' campaign wasn't actually aimed at women already doing great things

IBM promoted the video on Friday. The internet got vexed on Saturday. Things got even more heated on Sunday. IBM apologised profusely on Monday. Someone probably got sacked on Tuesday. No, this isn't a Craig David song gone horribly wrong. It's the timeline of an IBM marketing initiative gone horribly wrong.

The tech company has just axed a campaign that asked young women to "hack a hairdryer". The point of this "hacking", by the way, was to encourage more women to pursue Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers - not to increase the incidences of electrocution in the bathtub.