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Pink is the new STFU

You know what pisses me off? Getting a PR email from one of my favorite online retailers showcasing a buyers guide for “great gift ideas to pamper the women in your life,” including a pots and pans set, a hair dryer, and tons of gadgets in hot pink.

And…

Thanks, Newegg. You sure know how to make women feel special!

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newegg "holiday gift guides" pink

This entry was posted by Veronica on October 20, 2009 at 1:36 pm, and is filed under babble, internet. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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#1 written by Madison White 2 years ago

So very true.

I am kind of partial to the furry pink head phones.

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#2 written by John F 2 years ago

Ouch! that was a PR email? I though it was just an suggestion on the site! They sent this to the wrong lady!

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#3 written by CEWS 2 years ago

You mean you don’t want a hot pink 6.5 inch stainless-steel chef’s kitchen knife? FREE FRICKIN’ SHIPPING.

I just bought two.

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#4 written by Dan 2 years ago

I know no women who would want any of those in pink.

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#5 written by Ikcor 2 years ago

Man, those headphones are pure pimp.

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#6 written by jrep 2 years ago

Hey, there is a flash drive in there!

Or … 4GB … was that a “size matters” joke?

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#7 written by Teh Karl 2 years ago

They do this crap with games too. Have you seen the gamestop display “Games 4 Girls” or whatever it is called.

Man I’m sure real gamer girls are so interested in barbie horse adventures.

It is amazing to me that someone had this idea, pitched it to other people, and those other people let it happen. ugh.

I’m sorry ladies, I promise I won’t ever buy you a pink version of something unless specifically asked.

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#8 written by Dave 2 years ago

Wait, gadgets and cooking tools? Why didn’t they just send you an email saying “get back in the kitchen, woman!”?

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#9 written by Bryan Sierra - Diaz 2 years ago

Wow, I did not know New Egg did pots and pans.

Interestingly enough, those ear phones would be good for a gag gift I think.

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#10 written by Ella 2 years ago

Amen! This is right up there with the assumption that all women are pleased with gifts of Bath & Body Works-type products. No thanks!

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#11 written by LesF 2 years ago

Sounds like you need to return to Gadgettes and some pink watch.

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#12 written by Bryan Sierra - Diaz 2 years ago

Also, how old is that advertisment? I mean, it says the ‘next day’ shipping is 12/23?

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#13 written by genesyswave 2 years ago

My 7 year old would love many of those items, my wife would find most of them insulting

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#14 written by DarkEmeralds 2 years ago

But pink is the magic talisman against breast cancer. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?

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#15 written by riley 2 years ago

Amen.

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#16 written by Amy 2 years ago

I think I’d feel like a right bimbo carrying around a pink camera.

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#17 written by Megan 2 years ago

Ugh…I hate pink. The only one I *might* want would be the meat knife. >:-)

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#18 written by Britney Bennett 2 years ago

Yes, you can satisfy any woman just by giving her any old thing that’s pink.

How degrading.

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#19 written by kcwebgirl 2 years ago

i am always annoyed by these things. sure some women like pink and would want their gadgets that way but why is it assumed that we all fit that category? i hate pink mostly because it reminds me of pepto bismo. but whatever. tech companies need to get a damn clue and realize that we are more advanced than hello kitty minions and they might want to start acting like it or loose business! (i’m talking to you Sony!)

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#20 written by Lianne 2 years ago

I have that blowdryer, I’m sorry to admit. But I didn’t buy it for its pinkness. I bought it despite its pinkness.

Really hate all of the pink >.<

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#21 written by Veronica 2 years ago

If this list had anything to do with Breast Cancer Awareness month, I’d be all for it.

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#22 written by Angel Cisneros 2 years ago

Hahahaha, great post. I hate it when anything in this life gets stereotyped, and specially when it looks like they are doing a great compliment for everyone. Helping you pamper the woman in your life, nice! unless it is your 5 yr old daughter.

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#23 written by Mojomichael 2 years ago

From Smart Design’s Femme Den: “Design for women does not mean ‘shrink it and pink it.’”

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#24 written by Megyn 2 years ago

I love pic my camera and my phone case is pink it’s a beautiful color.

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#25 written by Grant 2 years ago

Because no women ever cook, and no women like pink. God forbid they try to market their products.

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#26 written by Veronica 2 years ago

Oh Grant Grant Grant… but surely not ALL women like to do is cook and use pink gadgets? This list is boring, unimaginative and trite.

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#27 written by Jose Antonio 2 years ago

I gave my GF a pink D&D Dice Bag for her Bday… did I do wrong?

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#28 written by Angie Chang 2 years ago

Wished they showed a variety of products in a variety of colors. Petal pink gets boring fast. Fuschia too. Methinks Newegg needs to hire a new direct marketing person… one who is more in touch with the times.

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#29 written by Grant 2 years ago

Oh Veronica, Veronica, Veronica… but surely not all guys want to crack a brewski and watch the “Game.” I don’t begrudge them for marketing to that guy, though.

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#30 written by Josh 2 years ago

I must agree with Grant here.. We are entering the season where everyone pushes the big screen TV so that you can watch the game with your buds.. I could care less about the game, but I’m not insulted over the ad. What’s more, the TVs they usually put on sale are the crap models. That’s not an insult to ME though.

They wouldn’t advertise TVs during football season, and pink stuff to women, if it didn’t work. Just because you don’t fit their audience, no worries!

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#31 written by Scott 2 years ago

Too be honest, the PR gets their information from the demographic. Most women want that crap. All retailers are like this. Once most women stop wanting it, it wont happen any longer.

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#32 written by Jeff Garlick 2 years ago

I HOPE it’s just a mistaken attempt to do some good for Breast Cancer…my mother is a recent survivor and when I see pink, it makes me stop and check to see if it’s girliness or fundraising.

BTW…I KNOW “girliness” is NOT a word but if Colbert can have “truthiness” I figure…well

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#33 written by Casey 2 years ago

sing me the blues, sister… if I listed the gifts I get from my boyfriend’s parents every year, it would look exactly like this. Bleh.

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#34 written by Pandora 2 years ago

So the only thing worth getting on that list is the knife..
But it has ‘fun shaped cutouts’ ??

I didn’t know fun had a shape.

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#35 written by Michael Roach 2 years ago

I’ve been adopting pink as one of my colors of choice just to challenge the “pink is for girls” idea. I even dyed my hair pink a couple years ago. I sometimes get comments on the pink shoelaces in my wingtips. It’s especially fun being that I live in Kansas.

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#36 written by Robin Winterset 2 years ago

I’d love to get those earphones. I like pink.

But then, I’m a guy so there’s really no nasty barefoot and pregnant stigma going on.

I’ll bet those do great noise redux. And they’re probably really comfy.

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#37 written by GenXer 2 years ago

There’s one thing I’m absolutely confident of: If marketing this way doesn’t sell the products, they’ll stop marketing them this way.

The reason “buy pink stuff for the ladies” gets used and repeated (in multiple industries) is simple. It works. Enough people are affected by the advertising and purchase the products that it’s effective for the company to continue selling them this way.

Blame the ladies that like them, blame guys for buying them, whatever you like, but I don’t think you can reasonably blame the company for doing the one thing it exists to do: make money.

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#38 written by brandon 2 years ago

i can’t decide whether i envy or pity you if this is the kind of thing you spend time being pissed off about.

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#39 written by D 2 years ago

You go girl!

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#40 written by RyanJJohn 2 years ago

Are they not pink because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Everything’s pink right now. Football players are wearing pink shoes. I mean, if not, then it’s ridiculous. But I’m pretty sure that it has more to do with that than with the broad generalization that all women want pink pots and pans.

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#41 written by John Bell 2 years ago

Best blog post title ever.

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#42 written by Veronica 2 years ago

Grant and GenX, sure, it “works,” because the dudes these lists are going to keep buying pink gadgets for their girlfriends/wives/mothers.

Judging by 99% of the comments I’ve read here and on Twitter, the ladies aren’t feeling it.

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#43 written by Adrian Merrington 2 years ago

Perhaps the pink posts are tied to the campaign to make all aware to check regularly for breast cancer. See http://www.nbcam.org/. It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month right now.

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#44 written by Grant 2 years ago

Veronica, isn’t it possible that you’re polling a self-selecting group?

I maintain “The man” isn’t forcing pink down the throats of women. It is perfectly okay for women to enjoy pink. If they don’t want pink items, that is fine too.

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#45 written by Grant 2 years ago

Also, I don’t want to be shoved in the category of “Douche bag on the internet that hates women.” Quite the opposite. I volunteer at Planned Parenthood every week. I am a big supporter of women’s rights. I just don’t see this as a big deal.

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#46 written by Veronica 2 years ago

Adrian, while I wish that was the case, what you’re seeing in those images is the full email. There’s no mention of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Grant, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. It’s annoying to a lot of women, clearly, and I can’t expect everyone to see it from that point of view.

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#47 written by Nancy Nally 2 years ago

I’m a scrapbook industry reporter/analyst. We have this same problem in the scrapbook industry. Companies will take products that have been being sold as household or other category items forever, turn them pink, market them to scrapbookers – and jack the price! GRRR.

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#48 written by Default_UserID 2 years ago

My favorite shade of pink is Hello Kitty. Hey! (dodges tomatoes)

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#49 written by Miles 2 years ago

While you’re right about the unimaginative part (and that’s definitely a problem for a retailer), you’d be surprised how many women actually are into pink stuff. Just because you are different (I like it), don’t speak for the majority. At my job working IT support for design agencies, I stopped counting how many abhorrent products I have seen in use especially from the (female) CEOs. Women like pink things. And fluffy things. And cliché things like Sex and the City. It’s like that list: boring and unimaginative, yes, but also a fact of life.

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#50 written by EmilyGrae 2 years ago

Inside my little tech girl circle, none of us have a single pink piece of gadgetry. Outside that circle, that bubble, like the girls at work, when they show up with a new cellphone or whatever, it’s almost always either red, purple, or guess what, pink. With a pink case with stupid glitter on it. They didn’t start today, but from the pink box that their Barbie came in, all the way to the colour of their covergirl mascara tube. It’s sure as hell not a recent phenomenon and as long as girlie women continue to buy in to it, and no, it’s not just the boyfriends and husbands buying it, the marketers will continue to do it.

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Pink is the new STFU

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