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OnePlus to Women: Send Us Hot Selfies, We'll Let You Buy Our Phone

Tech companies have a pretty awful track record where talking to women is concerned. But after running damage control on horrible campaign after horrible campaign, you'd think they'd try to avoid making the same mistakes again. And you would be wrong. Enter OnePlus' new lovely-ladies-only invite giveaway. Because, as they say, "chivalry is not dead."

First, a little background: Before anyone can even have the honor of paying full price for their admittedly super awesome OnePlus One, they'll need an invite. To actually get one of those invites, you'll either need to know someone already in the game or, if you're feeling lucky, try your hand at one of OnePlus' periodic contests. And that's where "Ladies First" comes in.

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The (lady-only) rules:

As we close in on the 200K mark for the number of registered forum users, OnePlus wants to give a shout out to the few but beautiful female fans in our community with our Ladies First contest.

In true gentlemen fashion and because chivalry is not dead, we are giving the lovely ladies of OnePlus a chance to skip the invite line and introduce themselves to us.

Ladies (and only ladies, sorry guys, ladies first), the rules are simple:

  • Draw the OnePlus logo on a piece of paper or on your hand/face/wherever (so we know it's really you)
  • Take a photo of yourself with the OnePlus logo clearly visible
  • Post the photo in this thread

The 50 most well-liked ladies will receive an invite and a Never Settle t-shirt.

Additionally, we will be giving out another 100 invites at random to any lady who participates in the contest. The contest begins today and ends on Friday. We will announce the winners on Monday.

Ladies, no nudity please.

You hear that, girls? Keep your clothes on—as tempting as it might be to disrobe with comments the likes of:

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And:

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And also:

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So OnePlus, if you're wondering why your "female fans" are so few in number, looks like you've found your answer. A little less condescension and a lot more speaking to women like humans could go a long way. [Cult of Android]

Update 8/12 3:41 pm: Well, that didn't take long. Looks like OnePlus has pulled the universally reviled contest. We've reached out for comment and will update as soon as we hear back.

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Update 8/13 1:15pm: A OnePlus spokesperson has provided us with the following statement:

OnePlus is thrilled to have a small but growing number of women active in our online community. We want to encourage even more women to get involved with and excited about the amazing things happening in tech right now. The 'Ladies First' contest was a very misguided effort by a few isolated employees to do just that, however there is no question the post not only failed to better include our female community but actually perpetuated a stereotype that OnePlus in no way supports or condones. We deeply regret any offense caused by this contest.

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