Dear Dell,
I was very glad to see your new Della website. My wife has just bought one of your computers and can now keep track of her weight so much more easily!
I was wondering, though: I have a black neighbour, when are you going to make a website for people like him?
Regards,
- David Stark
PS Oh no, wait. Let me rephrase that: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? Your "Della" website is a nauseating, patronising, sexist mess. Please stop insulting your potential customers with this garbage.
So Dell have recently opened a new sub-site called "Della" aimed at women in the most offensive way possible. Bereft of any technical information about their hardware, or indeed any information at all, the site instead includes "Tech Tips" about keeping track of your weight...
Unsurprisingly, most people aren't too happy about this - and indeed Dell have already backtracked a little - the most offensively stupid "Tech Tips" (like keeping track of your weight) are now gone from the site.
But the site itself is still up. It's perhaps unsurprising that Dell wanted a more "feminine" way to present itself to its customers, given the amusing "masculinity" of the main Dell site - with phrases like "engineered for maximum performance and scalability" and "HP and IMB should be very afraid". But a computer is a computer is a computer. There are no "girl computers" and "boy computers". And Dell doesn't seem to get that.
So what can you do?
In this case, it's very straightforward: go to the Della website, click on the little "Feedback" link at the bottom right, and leave them a message. Tell them that you're offended by their troglodyte sexism, mention that you're not going to buy a computer from such an unpleasant company, and tell them to shut that site down.
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You so right, this was a very badly executed idea.
ReplyDeleteI think you have already won in fact, because Della is very hard to find (without resorting to using your link). If you type "della" or "della dell" into Google, the main Dell website is advertised but Della is nowhere to be seen. I guess it may have been removed by google. I eventually found a way to it by searching the dell website. It's not on their site map though, and not on any link on any of the main pages. Seems like they are not that proud of it!
They will have problems getting their dumb blond target audience to find the website at all if they act like that!
Perhaps they will be able to produce a slightly less macho website in future that isn't quite so patronising. We can hope
I just had a look and the worst of the "tips" are gone, with this note:
ReplyDeleteEditors Note: Some of you have read this article over the last several days and will notice a few modifications. You spoke; we listened. Thank you for your ongoing feedback.Also to their credit, they've left up the comments calling them out on their fatheaded, insulting patronising.
I'm surprised at this quick response, but still not going to buy a "Della" computer - or anything from Dell - and I'm pleased they seem to be burying the campaign.
Grinnyguy - I'm so glad you're reading here!