The Internet is responding to Bic’s bafflingly sexist “act like a lady, think like a man” campaign in the best way

“Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss.” There are so many sexist things about that sentence that we don’t even know where to start. Well, what if we told you that a major company actually used it as an advertisement? Yep, that’s exactly what Bic South Africa did on Sunday when they posted a stock photo of a smiling woman donning a business suit, overlain with that ultra offensive (and, not to mention, ridiculous) slogan:

Cute. Real cute. So the main thing women are good at is looking good, while thinking is the strong suit of men only? Women are just around for ornamental purposes? We’re honestly wondering who on Bic’s team could have possibly thought that was a good idea.

Though Bic realized their monumental mistake pretty quickly and deleted the Facebook post, the Internet did what it does best and gave the company a piece of their mind in the best way possible:

Others responded by creating fabulous parodies and “fixing” the ad (we approve):

In response to the (deserved) backlash, Bic issued an apology statement on their Facebook page. “Let’s start out by saying we’re incredibly sorry for offending everybody — that was never our intention, but we completely understand where we’ve gone wrong,” the statement read. “This post should never have gone out. The feedback you have given us will help us ensure that something like this will never happen again, and we appreciate that.”

In response to the apology, commenters were quick to highlight a very important point — the ridiculousness of the pink-and-purple “For Her” line of pens released in 2012 (and still available on Amazon, where you can read the hilarious reviews):

Boy, Bic, you’ve gotta get some better folks on your advertising team, not only because of the times you’ve somehow made pens sexist, but for your own safety. The Internet is quick, clever, and sure can skewer a company quickly when they smell BS. (And some of them are even ladies, thinking with their lady brains. Imagine that!)

(Images via)